Earlier this month,聽a tipster聽聽that used Petzl Aspir (C24) climbing harnesses were being resold on eBay after potentially fatal modifications.听The harnesses had been destroyed and then聽crudely stitched back together at the hip belts or leg loops, making it聽appear that the gear was聽safe to use.听
The harnesses were listed for sale by a seller named 鈥淪urplusandlost online鈥 for $19. The seller even acknowledged the harnesses had been 鈥渃ut, repaired, and tested.鈥 This week,聽鈥淪urplusandlost online鈥 issued a recall of the harnesses and offered consumers full refunds. An email聽to a representative for the seller was not returned.听聽
Petzl has a lot of questions, including聽how, where, and聽by whom the harnesses were re-stitched聽and subsequently聽resold. The company also doesn't聽know how many of the compromised harnesses might still be on聽the market, says Petzl America Technical Director Rick Vance. At least 100 have been recovered, but that number continues to rise.听鈥淎t the moment, these appear to be from one institutional user, like a climbing gym, or we think it may have been a military center or something like that, which had a large number of them,鈥 says Vance. 鈥淲e鈥檙e still trying to determine their exact path from the original user to being modified to being listed on eBay.鈥
Petzl, a French company, is working with French law enforcement,聽but it remains unclear what, if any, charges might be brought should they聽determine who altered the gear. Vance聽doesn鈥檛 believe the act was malicious.听鈥淚t鈥檚 more likely somebody who doesn鈥檛 understand the importance of this equipment and was just trying to make a buck,鈥 says Vance.听鈥淢aybe they were willfully ignorant, but we don鈥檛 have anything that tells us they were actively trying to get someone hurt.鈥
Greg Barnes, director of the American Safe Climbing Association, said he had never heard of anything like the聽Petzl聽harness case. Five years ago, online retailers in Asia were聽, which presented similar dangers, but聽not the same kind of manipulation.
According to Vance, each harness should have a serial number that allows Petzl to trace the original point of sale. That聽part of the investigation is聽ongoing, he says. 鈥淭his is a slap in the face that we take personally.听It appears that somebody was trying to do the right thing by taking these products out of service and making them unusable, and somebody else turns right back around and potentially puts a customer in a dangerous situation…Used personal protective equipment should always be looked at as suspect.鈥澛