Cape woman invents privacy enclosures
By CHUCK BALLARO
Want to get a tan and not have anyone look in on you? Or, do you need to spend the night in an emergency shelter?
Ingrid Setzer, a Cape Coral woman, may have the answer thanks to privacy enclosures that she invented that can serve to give people extra privacy when they need it most.
Setzer said the idea came when she lived in San Carlos Park. Her backyard had a 6-foot privacy fence, but her neighbor had one that was higher and would allow people to look into her yard.
“I thought I would like to get a suntan without people having to see me because I never knew if I would have to chase after the kids,” Setzer said.
She couldn’t get anything into the ground such as a stake, but discovered she had something nobody else had. She went to a patent lawyer, who confirmed her findings. She got a full patent in 2007
The idea was a portable, semi-rigid, 3-foot by 6-foot enclosure with a floor on the bottom, held together with Velcro. The panels are made with fabric and attached to a bottom fabric. When enclosed, the bottom piece becomes the outside, Setzer said.
“The beauty of it is that it opens in seconds. You don’t have to wrestle to put it back together and you can put three sides down as long as you have three sides connecting,” Setzer said. “It can be a lot of things.”
Indoors, the enclosure can be placed over a couch to allow extra privacy for a nap. The same can be said for outdoor use, though it isn’t intended for use in windy conditions.
In the office, new moms can use the enclosures to express milk to their babies, as now provided by law, and Setzer said the enclosures are approved at the Red Cross shelters because it’s open on top and it fits the 3-by-6-foot area shelters usually allow.
“When you’re inside, you really don’t need a chair. It’s so comfortable. You can put a mat down,” Setzer said.
The business just opened a few weeks ago. Setzer tried to get the product made in the U.S., but she learned it was very difficult to make that happen.
Setzer doesn’t have an office, but has a warehouse and a website. Right now, the enclosures only come in camouflage green, but she hopes to add colors and perhaps sports teams and products in the future.
The enclosures cost $299.
For additional information about the privacy enclosures, go to www.privacyenclosure.com, send an e-mail to Setzer, or call (901) 352-1729.