Sensitive to sound, inventor jams neighbours' stereos

A case of mild autism has made Houston's Barney Vincelette sensitive to noise. Vincelette, who lives in a spaceship-style house, thinks music, especially top 40, rap and rock 'n' roll, "sounds the same way faeces smells."

Vincelette used his genius-level IQ and parts of household microwave ovens to develop a makeshift device that uses electromagnetic waves to temporarily jam the circuitry of his neighbours' stereos.

"Many people just assume that you should be able to have this music in your backyard. But it is such an ugly music that it takes over one's life," he said. "That's why I fight back against it."



Vincelette is so sensitive to noise that he's gone as far as shooting and killing a dog that barked nonstop outside his apartment. He paid a $100 fine and was evicted.

"I'm not terribly proud to have done that but I was at the end of my rope," he said. "The way the law was, there was nothing I could do about it and there was no place I could live that didn't have dogs barking all night and all day."

And then the story gets really weird.