CIA dead drops are no movie fiction! Officers used a "dead rat" concealment device for secret messages until testing revealed an unlikely nemesis: curious cats. The fix? Dousing the rat in wormwood ...

They're knocked out by the liquid and "drown eventually", according to Anthony Giaquinto, the president of Rat Trap, who import the device. The rodent dies in the tank - which can hold up to 80 ...

The mini motors, which were powered by grasping a small wire acting like an acceleration pedal, were designed to dispense the rats with Froot Loops cereal for successfully getting the device to work.