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A door at a Swedish library was accidentally left open

zmescience.com

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Re: A door at a Swedish library was accidentally left open

#41

Post by Kim_Bruning »

Ekaros wrote: post #31
Kim_Bruning wrote: post #2

If you read the news every day, you might be forgiven for thinking that most people are naturally evil. In reality the vast majority are actually good, or trend towards acting in a positive manner at the very least. I've seen two sorts of IRL applications rely on this: Self checkout at stores, and sites like wikipedia and openstreetmap. Or just western society in general, if you think about it. Most of the time we tr…

I deeply believe that most people are evil. But also what is the point of stealing few marked books. There really isn't that much money in them and they are quite hard to flip.

Oh now, that's an interesting belief. How did you come to it?

Re: A door at a Swedish library was accidentally left open

#44

Post by albert180 »

Moldoteck wrote: post #16
jopsen wrote: post #5

It's not unusual for local libraries in Denmark to be accessible to outside office hours using a library card. Usually, not at night -- but why close a local library in the evening. Just require library cards and add video surveillance. (you milage may vary)

Imo it could work like 24/7 gyms: classic operation during normal hours, video&card access for any other time. May as well add some extrafee for access during night

Library's are a public service not a business

Re: A door at a Swedish library was accidentally left open

#45

Post by Emma_Goldman »

baron816 wrote: post #21

If you leave your wallet on the ground in a park in SF, the chances you’ll get it back are probably pretty high. If you leave it in your locked car, your car will probably get broken into. Thieves are strategic. They’re not looking around in parks for lost wallets, nor are they going to libraries hoping they can lift a bunch of unattended books.

Career thieves wouldn't scour a park for wallets, no, but many people are opportunistic thieves. If they happen upon money with no one in sight, they'll just take it, without thinking it's a big deal.

The case in the article matches the second model, not the first. Hundreds of people realised they were in a library with no staff. Two-hundred books were taken out, presumably without anyone having to log their names. That would have made it extremely easy for them to just keep the books. But they were returned.

Having few opportunistic thieves is, one would think, a good sign of societal trust and well-being.

I'll just mention that security at UK university libraries is fairly tight, I know people who have accidently taken out books without logging them, and just kept them, and there have been cases at Cambridge where quite high-value books have gone missing.

Re: A door at a Swedish library was accidentally left open

#46

Post by FirmwareBurner »

geff82 wrote: post #6

Recently, we were at a resort in Switzerland. Arguably one of the safest countries on earth. But: as we exited the swimming pool house, our umbrella was gone. I said „what an irony, the first time we have something stolen is in Switzerland“. Two hours later, the umbrella was again where we had left it: someone must have borrowed it to protect themselves/their children from heavy rain. We understood why there were no…

>We understood why there were no cctvs anywhere: they were not needed

Most likely because CCTV cameras are a legal privacy concern for which you need a license so you're not allowed to install CCTV cameras everywhere you like just because you own the business. It's the same in Germany and Austria.

At my local gym there's a warning at the entrance saying that there's CCTV surveillance on the property and that by entering the premises you accept their surveillance rules and they also post the authorization number for their surveillance license.

Re: A door at a Swedish library was accidentally left open

#47

Post by yread »

johncoltrane wrote: post #22
geff82 wrote: post #6

Recently, we were at a resort in Switzerland. Arguably one of the safest countries on earth. But: as we exited the swimming pool house, our umbrella was gone. I said „what an irony, the first time we have something stolen is in Switzerland“. Two hours later, the umbrella was again where we had left it: someone must have borrowed it to protect themselves/their children from heavy rain. We understood why there were no…

We once visited the MAMCO museum, in Geneva, all on our own, opening every door, manually turning on the lights in every room we entered, etc. I think we stayed over an hour without meeting any staff or triggering any alarm.

It sounds a bit ambiguous, have you in the end triggered the alarm and had to run from the staff or have you made it out with your ill gotten gains?

Re: A door at a Swedish library was accidentally left open

#48

Post by mrtksn »

geff82 wrote: post #6

Recently, we were at a resort in Switzerland. Arguably one of the safest countries on earth. But: as we exited the swimming pool house, our umbrella was gone. I said „what an irony, the first time we have something stolen is in Switzerland“. Two hours later, the umbrella was again where we had left it: someone must have borrowed it to protect themselves/their children from heavy rain. We understood why there were no…

IMHO the problems usually occur when people don't feel like part of the community and being at a resort in CH should probably create some kind of sense of community as wouldn't be any outsiders since everyone there will be there because they want to be there(unlike places like Airports or roadside coffees where most people will be there because they needed the services in between the places they would like to be at).

Even in the most shitty neighbourhoods, the place can be quite safe for residents if there's no high churn rate.

Re: A door at a Swedish library was accidentally left open

#49

Post by code_biologist »

baron816 wrote: post #21

If you leave your wallet on the ground in a park in SF, the chances you’ll get it back are probably pretty high. If you leave it in your locked car, your car will probably get broken into. Thieves are strategic. They’re not looking around in parks for lost wallets, nor are they going to libraries hoping they can lift a bunch of unattended books.

About 7 or 8 years ago I lost my wallet in Golden Gate Park while tripping incredibly hard on LSD. I had been climbing around the trees and scrub for hours, so I was certain it was gone for good. A few months later it showed up in my mail halfway across the country (driver's license address). I was astonished, grateful, and wished I could send a reward or thanks — but it was literally just my wallet in a bubble mailer with $30 in cash untouched.
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