Coming through a beach with a metal detector seems like a leisurely enough activity, but you might wonder if there’s any way to make it just a little more lazy. Luckily for you, there are these very useful metal detecting sandals. Rather than having to carry around a big, heavy metal detector device, you simply walk along the ground you want to search and let the sandals tell you when you’ve come across something interesting. Marketed by Hammacher Schlemmer, purveyors of everything weird and useless, the sandals made headlines in the summer of 2009 but have since become unavailable for purchase.

A copper coil embedded in one of the sandals is attached to a house arrest-style ankle device. A magnetic field emanating from the copper coil detects metal objects up to two feet underground. The only problem is that, unless your right foot is directly above the buried object, the sandal won’t detect it. And if you, like most people, walk by alternating steps between your right foot and your left foot, you’ll miss about half of the potential buried treasure. By most accounts the metal detecting properties aren’t impressive, but these sandals are great for alarming other beachgoers into thinking you’re an escaped home-detention prisoner.