Earlier quoted context omitted.
Wtf? People do that in the desert?
Grew up in Vegas. We set off bombs in the desert. It’s a wacky place. (I’m In Vegas as i type.)
Pretty sure turtlecloud was asking about the orgies.
Turns Out Wearing a Hi-Vis Vest Gets You into Everything for Free
131–140 of 209 posts
Re: Turns Out Wearing a Hi-Vis Vest Gets You into Everything for Free
#132I don't need to read the article, it's well established that the average person acquiesces to perceived authority most of the time when they encounter it. I figured it out in 1977 working for a private telcom company in Santa Clara. We had no company uniforms or shirts, just our tool belts and butt-sets (clip-on test phone) bouncing as we walked along. I was at one of our accounts adding some extensions, when my new…
"You can go anywhere if you walk fast and carry a clipboard" - Douglas Adams
Reminds me of being a junior engineer doing radio signal measurements before and after a network optimisation.
With slightly worn hi-vis shirts, clipboards and our portable RF spetrum analyser, we got into all sorts of places from airport lounges (pre 9-11), F1 racetrack a few days before the big race to hotel suites and several corporate office buildings. We were always polite and asked permission before entering private property, but not once did anybody check our IDs nor call to confirm our story.
Re: Turns Out Wearing a Hi-Vis Vest Gets You into Everything for Free
#133I carefully and quietly walked into an academic building with a pair of bolt cutters and walked out with a pair of bolt cutters and an iMac hefted under one arm (having relieved it of its lock-cable) and nobody seemed to even notice. That said it was my actual job to do this- but I could have been anyone with a pair of bolt cutters!
The trick is to behave like you're not doing anything wrong. If you have a pair of bolt cutters and you look like you're aimlessly wandering, people will notice. If instead, you walk in and go straight into any random office, you're fine. If you know where the building manager's office is, go straight for that and make it look like you talked to them, people won't question anything you do afterwards. (Source: watched…
The trick is to look pissed about your job.
Re: Turns Out Wearing a Hi-Vis Vest Gets You into Everything for Free
#134This article reminded me of BBC Three's The Real Hustle programme [1]. The presenters often used to wear hi-vis jackets to pull off various scams. It was surprisingly effective. [2][3][4] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Real_Hustle [2] https://youtu.be/1vOV4-6Sozw [3] https://youtu.be/CxappKA4YBY [4] https://youtu.be/CRBJrSBtnKM
I think everything on that show was faked with paid actors, I remember a story coming out about it.
Re: Turns Out Wearing a Hi-Vis Vest Gets You into Everything for Free
#135This article reminded me of BBC Three's The Real Hustle programme [1]. The presenters often used to wear hi-vis jackets to pull off various scams. It was surprisingly effective. [2][3][4] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Real_Hustle [2] https://youtu.be/1vOV4-6Sozw [3] https://youtu.be/CxappKA4YBY [4] https://youtu.be/CRBJrSBtnKM
Love that show! Impressive research job finding those 3 hi-vis vest clips so quickly
Re: Turns Out Wearing a Hi-Vis Vest Gets You into Everything for Free
#136I carefully and quietly walked into an academic building with a pair of bolt cutters and walked out with a pair of bolt cutters and an iMac hefted under one arm (having relieved it of its lock-cable) and nobody seemed to even notice. That said it was my actual job to do this- but I could have been anyone with a pair of bolt cutters!
The trick is to behave like you're not doing anything wrong. If you have a pair of bolt cutters and you look like you're aimlessly wandering, people will notice. If instead, you walk in and go straight into any random office, you're fine. If you know where the building manager's office is, go straight for that and make it look like you talked to them, people won't question anything you do afterwards. (Source: watched…
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Re: Turns Out Wearing a Hi-Vis Vest Gets You into Everything for Free
#137When I was in high school I worked at Kmart as a temp job during the holidays. They trained us on the first day to help fight shoplifting. They told us that for the longest time they were losing large electronics and couldn’t figure out how people were hiding them. In time, they realized how it was happening. The thief would find the item he wanted and would calmly walk out the front door with the item in plain sight…
I used to do this in the dorm room cafeteria at my college, just to see if it’d work. People got yelled at all the time for filling bottles with coffee or sodas, but I’d just fill their ceramic cups up and casually drink from it while waving to the greeter. It’s bizarre what people will overlook if you don’t seem suspicious.
People enforce rules with a single minded focus that can be self defeating. Change the circumstances slightly and people are not likely to reinterpret the rules, even if this would seem “obvious”. This is one of the reasons top down management is so inefficient in the long run. Circumstances change but the person who made the rule is not around to reinterpret the rules.
A friend told me of a person in a flying club with him who went to the airport to go on a hunting trip. They had slung their guns over their shoulders and walked to the entrance of the airport to get to their plane. Security officials scanned them with hand held scanners and waved them through...
Re: Turns Out Wearing a Hi-Vis Vest Gets You into Everything for Free
#138I have a friend who was inspired by the Abignale story to create his own Southwestern Bell employee ID. He used the artwork off his phone bill and a laminator. The result passed scrutiny of a cop who wanted to know why he was performing some late night "maintenance" on a phone box. Between his fake ID, a Bell hard hat and a tool belt with all the proper pieces including a butt set he could go just about anywhere.
One day I was skipping school and talked to a a linesman about beigeboxing and he was surprised I even know what It was as this was circa 2001 before 9/11. I just red an article about mitnick in 2600 or something similar, probably off gamefaqs.
He gave me a complete tour of how to open the panelbox, how to wire RJ11, and numbers to call and troubleshoot and an spare broken unit he had.
It wasn't really broken, one of the aligator clips just needed to be soldered --
Fun times then, this was also back when I was getting free hours via NetZero/AOL And they did some simple ANI blocking per day or something.
Re: Turns Out Wearing a Hi-Vis Vest Gets You into Everything for Free
#139I never knew this was a thing until I became a land surveyor and forgot to take off my hi-vis vest a few times when entering different places, usually to find something to eat or drink.
Re: Turns Out Wearing a Hi-Vis Vest Gets You into Everything for Free
#140Coincidentally on Hacker News front page right now ... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18318647 ... a story about being black while legitimately shopping with no intention of stealing. I'm not sure the author of that article could use the hi-viz trick and get away with it ... or have the luxury of even contemplating it as a lark all in "harmless fun". edit: grammar and emphasis
One could argue that to somebody with racist inclination a black person wearing a hi-viz might look even more credible.