Iron Concealment Device

An innocent iron? Could a woman be a Stasi agent? West German police thought so. But a search of her apartment turned up nothing suspicious. Just everyday objects, such as an ordinary iron. In fact, this silver iron used in households acted as a concealment device.

A hidden compartment actually held a single use “one-time pad” and a schedule for communicating with an agent’s Stasi handler. In an emergency, plugging in the iron incinerated the evidence.