Inventor creates new device to combat car thieves
He loves his job so much, he cannot stop working.
And at 77, design engineer David Tooth is not only still inventing products, he is also writing books.
The Willenhall pensioner works three days a week for local firms from an office he has set up at home
His latest designs include a security device to prevent thieves stealing cars. He has also invented a lock to prevent manholes being stolen.
The grandfather-of three has now written his autobiography which is being published on Amazon, together with a children's book aimed at under-eight year olds and a mystery story targeted at older youngsters and adults.
He started writing after becoming ill on holiday in Cyprus a decade ago. He was in hospital on the holiday island for a month being treated for pneumonia and feared he would never be able to return to work.
But he made a remarkable recovery and not only kept up his writing but eventually picked up his engineering career again.
His autobiography, The Shop That Sold Dreams, covers the first 15 years of his life including three spells in live-in 'open-air' schools for children suffering from asthma, the last being in Davos, Switzerland.
He grew up in a cramped terraced house in Balsall Heath, Birmingham, then a slum area, and recalls how tough life was when his father, also an engineer, was forced to give up work when he contracted the lung disease, emphysema.
The family lived in in five different houses and the young David went to nine different schools, yet he enjoyed a childhood that was full of adventure, he says.
Mr Tooth, who once owned company that made dyes for car badges such as Jaguar and Rolls Royce, writes his books under the pen name of David Timmins and has just embarked on another writing project, a short story.
He says: "I enjoy it and it brings in extra money which goes to finance my security products."
