Men plead guilty to selling fake penises for drug tests

A Huntington Beach man pleaded guilty Monday in a Pittsburgh U.S. District Court to fraud and selling drug paraphernalia; his company is charged with helping to dupe job-related drug testers with products including a prosthetic penis and dehydrated urine.

Federal prosecutors issued a 19-count injunction against Puck Technologies Vice President Robert Dennis Catalano, 62, of Huntington Beach, and President George W. Wills, 65, of San Pedro.

They pleaded guilty to two conspiracies of fraud and selling drug paraphernalia. The federal government will seek to seize the company’s assets, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported.

Puck Technology of Signal Hill offered products including the $150 Whizzinator, a prosthetic penis and dehydrated urine set; Number One, a disposable urinating set; and Yellow River, vials of dehydrated urine.

The Whizzinator comes with dried “clean” urine, a syringe, an instruction manual and heater packs to simulate body temperature.

The prosthetic came in a variety of skin tones. A female version was also available, news reports said.

“The Whizzinator is the ultimate solution for a drug testing device. ... The prosthetic penis is very realistic and concealing is simple,” the company’s website claims.

“Yellow River consists of all the proper pH levels, salts and consistencies of actual urine, with DNA being the only missing element,” the website states.

Football running back Onterrio Smith was detained in 2005 in an airport after the Whizzinator device was discovered by airport security; he was suspended for owning the device, according to media reports. A Congress subcommittee held hearings about the product, the Washington Post reported.

The Whizzinator also captured public spotlight when a Pennsylvania woman and her friend attempted to use a convenience store microwave to heat up the device and pass a drug test. The convenience store clerk called the police when they thought it was a real penis, reports said.

Two of Puck Technology’s ordering websites have been taken down, but an informational site, pucktechnology.wbx-staging.com, was still active as of Tuesday. Other online vendors still purport to sell the products.

Catalano and Wills will be sentenced on Feb. 20, the BBC reported; they will face a $500,000 fine and up to eight years in prison.

CANDICE BAKER can be reached at (714) 966-4631 or at candice.baker@latimes.com.