I used to work retail in high school and noticed that people suddenly became deferential if I was carrying a clipboard with paper attached.
Turns Out Wearing a Hi-Vis Vest Gets You into Everything for Free
201–209 of 209 posts
Re: Turns Out Wearing a Hi-Vis Vest Gets You into Everything for Free
#202Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, you are correct (I speak Dutch, not German, but they are very close). In Dutch we use a lot of English words: Computer, keyboard, ... . So when I hear an English sounding 'beamer', I think it's English :). We basically use 'projector' for anything from slide to video projector. But it seems the digital age introduce a new word 'beamer' in our language (and German), that didn't happen in English.
Beamer is pronounced just like bimmer, which to most in the US (or at least my part of it) is just a nickname for BMW cars. That said, beamer as the word for projector has that German feel of being “obvious” to it, and is neat.
In the UK beam-er is how we pronounce our nickname for BMW cars.
Re: Turns Out Wearing a Hi-Vis Vest Gets You into Everything for Free
#203Earlier quoted context omitted.
One could argue that to somebody with racist inclination a black person wearing a hi-viz might look even more credible.
Exactly. No one intentionally drawing attention to themselves could possibly be up to something nefarious, they'd draw too much attention to themselves to get away with anything.
I once was shadowing a deliver driver in a suburban neighborhood. We were both in high viz and I stayed in the car for this delivery. The guy rang the bell and no one answered so he followed standard process and looked for a secure location to reduce the chance of theft when he left the package unattended. He was looking for just a few seconds when a neighbor came up to hassle him, ask him what he was doing and accused him of wanting to rob the place. While wearing a hi-viz vest. Racists will see whatever they want to see. He could have been wearing a flashing hard hat too and I'm sure the neighbor still would have harassed him.
Re: Turns Out Wearing a Hi-Vis Vest Gets You into Everything for Free
#204Earlier quoted context omitted.
or a clipboard in the navy, or .. if you look like you're preoccupied with finding someone that usually works too
I've found the preemptive question a powerful tool as well. If anyone seems to be on the verge of questioning you, walk up to them, look them straight in the eye, and impatiently ask them a question. (E.g. for directions) Seems to short circuit the brain. PS: I'm pretty sure it's also worked on would-be muggers a couple times too, spinning around and asking the person following you for a block if they have the time.
Part of that with the possible muggers might be that you'd demonstrated you were aware of them. Muggers explaining their methods have said they prefer to go after the people who seem least aware of their surroundings.
Re: Turns Out Wearing a Hi-Vis Vest Gets You into Everything for Free
#205Earlier quoted context omitted.
Two off-topic questions: what else is in the bag? And are there other scenarios that you've specifically prepared for?
Ok, you pushed me over the edge :-) See : https://github.com/ChuckM/CarEarthquakePrep
Wow, thanks for writing that up! I’ve had some thoughts about collaborative prepping for “realistic” scenarios and this gives me something to chew on. Personally I’m not in an earthquake zone, but my 5th floor apartment is just about sea level in Holland so I’m thinking about what the coming decades might look like here.
Re: Turns Out Wearing a Hi-Vis Vest Gets You into Everything for Free
#206Earlier quoted context omitted.
And a suspiciously clean white hard hat.
In my experience, common yellow/white hard hats are what workers wear. Management tends to wear rarer colors, like green/blue/red.
There's a defacto code here (UK), yellow is labour, blue is trades. white is engineers, grey is visitors. green is safety (H&S/medical), pink is the noob who forgot his hardhat.
Re: Turns Out Wearing a Hi-Vis Vest Gets You into Everything for Free
#207Earlier quoted context omitted.
I lost the key to my bike lock, took the bus home. Next AM brought a hacksaw to work. As I sat sawing through the cable, somebody I didn't know walked by and said "If you were stealing that bike, you'd be sawing a lot faster", smiled and walked on by.
One of my kid threw a temper tantrum in a restaurant, so I walk with her to go sit in the car together till she calmed down. She was screaming and crying while we were walking and a stranger with a concerned look asked if she was my daughter. I told them she was but that at that particular moment they could have her. They just walked not knowing what to do or say. I was amused by my smart-ass answer and their reactio…
Child abduction in broad daylight and crowded place had been happening in China. A group of people consist of grandma, husband, uncles would pick on single mom with infant on the street. They would brazenly take away her infant. Of course the mom would be upset and fight. The fake family would act like they were just having a family quarrel. Bystander would just leave them be. I saw documentaries in China and police were advising people to call for police and help those who are in distress.
I would not be surprised if there are fake cops now in the fake family group. But I hope for the best for China.
Re: Turns Out Wearing a Hi-Vis Vest Gets You into Everything for Free
#208Earlier quoted context omitted.
Two off-topic questions: what else is in the bag? And are there other scenarios that you've specifically prepared for?
Ok, you pushed me over the edge :-) See : https://github.com/ChuckM/CarEarthquakePrep
>> A lot of people ask why I have a surgical laceration kit
in my go-bag given that I am not qualified to actually use it.
My reasoning stems from what I have seen across many disasters that have occurred all over the world.
In the most likely scenario for the bay area, an earthquake (like the Loma Prieta quake or the Northridge quake),
all these people are moving around and then boom, everything stops moving.
At that instant in time you have a cross section of people evenly distributed across an area,
then some percentage of them will be health care workers (Nurses, Doctors, PAs etc).
And the hospitals will be far away.Re: Turns Out Wearing a Hi-Vis Vest Gets You into Everything for Free
#209People see the uniform not the face. It is a truism, and it can be weirdly triggered. For example, late August afternoon I went into Staples to buy some office supplies, and I had just happened to be wearing khaki pants and a red polo shirt which unfortunately was exactly the same color as the red 'staples' staff shirts. All through the visit anxious mothers came up to me looking for school supplies for their kids or…
There is a pretty popular subreddit dedicated to exactly this: https://www.reddit.com/r/IDontWorkHereLady/ It works both ways. If you wear something that resembles a uniform people will assume you work there (and might not believe you don't). You can use that for getting into places you shouldn't be.. or get harassed by entitled customers
Just wear an orange lanyard attached to your phone in your breast pocket.
Works in every Home Depot I’ve ever been in, and many other stores.
People don’t even bother to actually look at the lanyard enough to notice it says “Star Wars” and “REBEL” on it, with the Star Wars Rebel insignia.