Originally published at: "Leave phony overcoat button at scene" — Read this 1950s burglar's notebook of advice | Boing Boing
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Now the button is DNA.
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Nah. I’ve seen the Tory / Republican Manifesto before.
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- Use bulb in toilet bowl to hide diamonds in — or cash.
Dang, Mom taught me that one…
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I think a rubber float bulb in your toilet in 2022 might be a basis for reasonable suspicion.
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A lot of that is shockingly bad advice. Like intentionally burgling the upstairs of a house when there’s a party going on downstairs.
That’s why these guys always get caught sooner or later*. They think they are smarter than they are and can out-think what is an incredibly high risk activity.
*There are some genuinely smart blue collar criminals that never get caught. There’s a great book called Confessions Of A Master Jewel Thief that tells of one such man. Of course, the book might also be bullshit and we all know the truly smart criminals work in finance anyway.
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Sounds a lot like the techniques of the Stainless Steel Rat himself, James Bolivar diGriz
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When was this written? Cachoo was banned in 1919 And this is why the FDA banned sneezing powder in 1919
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I wonder if “don’t keep written documentation explicitly linking your stupid ass to criminal activity” was on the list.
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- Use sneeze powder to foil capture. Sold in novelty stores. Called Cachoo — $1.00 per bottle.
I’m trying to understand how sneeze powder would foil capture. Attack the cops with it? Attack yourself with it? “Holy smokes, that potential perp is sneezing uncontrollably! Let’s get out of here!”
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Overcoat button? It would work once. If they keep finding overcoat buttons, though, they’ll realize it’s a ruse and an MO, you just identified the burglaries you committed.
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Especially if you happen to be caught with a pocketful of extra buttons.
I wonder how often modern criminals do leave random clumps of hair or whatever behind as a red herring. I would imagine that if you went to a filthy bathroom at a bail bond place or whatever you could find bits of hair that would match with people that already had a record and throw cops off track, or at least create a bunch of doubt and confusion.
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But. . . but. . . all my overcoats are real.
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Shockingly dumb advice when all you have to do is ask the cop if he wants a stick of gum, offer it to him and then a small mechanism goes CLICK! - and captures the cop’s index finger. You now have around a half second to run and evade capture. My gawd, do I hafta explain everything around here?
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- Use sneeze powder to foil capture. Sold in novelty stores. Called Cachoo — $1.00 per bottle.
Wait a minute. Is this the Joker’s cheat book?
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It’s hilarious to think anyone might think cops actually go around carefully collecting forensic evidence to be analyzed “down at the lab” for a random burglary. They don’t even do that for big crimes. People watch too much CSI.
Besides, a clump of hair or whatever would be lost in the noise. Every single human space is covered in hair, skin, and fingerprints from hundreds (or even thousands) of people.
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It wouldn’t even work once if Columbo was on the scene.
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These sound like Shadow story ideas.
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They did collect some fingerprints when my apartment was broken into. Which probably just means that my fingerprints are on file as being found at a crime scene.
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