Anti-theft device on shirt

Gregjazz · Thu 29/01/2009 20:44:08

So the other day I bought the sweetie a shirt, and when I got home I found that the cashier had neglected to remove the anti-theft device from it. It was one of these: http://www.sensormatic.com/Products/EAS/HardTags/HardTagsFamily/SuperTagIII.aspx

Basically it is attached the shirt: if you pull too hard, it tears a portion of the shirt off with it. Some of these devices even contain ink that will stain the shirt if you try to remove the security tag yourself.

Being the little adventure gamer I am, rather than driving all the way back to the store to have them remove it, I took the challenge to take it off myself.

After trying many tools on it, knives, pliers, etc. I settled on using a hammer and chisel, which although taking a long time, did the trick of splitting the plastic tag in half. At that point it was easy to release the shirt.

Just another one of those life adventure game puzzles.

Tuomas · Thu 29/01/2009 20:54:01

I'm intrigued. Did it spill ink all over the shirt when you demolished it?

And: would you now encourage us to try this at the supermarket, see if it would work in a dramatised situation?

Gregjazz · Thu 29/01/2009 20:56:16

Fortunately this wasn't the kind that contains ink. Otherwise, I'd be in trouble with the amount of abuse I gave that thing with a hammer.

So I guess the lesson is... make sure they take off all the tags before you leave the store.

Raider · Thu 29/01/2009 20:59:10

You could have used it for more constructive activities instead of destroying it.

SpacePirateCaine · Thu 29/01/2009 21:27:23

Hey Greg, long time no see.

You ought to hang on to it just in case you need to cause a disturbance at the clothing store at a later time. Just roll one of those babies past the sensors, and pandemonium! No idea what sort of real-life adventure puzzle that would involve, but you don't really have those babies very often. May as well "keep it in your inventory" until it seems like it might be useful.

Sometimes amassing seemingly useless crap can lead to good things... Or just clutter up your pockets.

IndieBoy · Thu 29/01/2009 22:10:57

Those sensors only work from the knee height up. That's why you have to have your swag bag really close to the ground when you are walking through them if you don't want to be caught.

ManicMatt · Thu 29/01/2009 23:08:07

And then from reading the threat title I thought I was finally going to have a device to stop people from stealing my t-shirt off my back.

zabnat · Fri 30/01/2009 08:37:02

Didn't the sensor go off when you walked out the door? Or did you put the shirt in your shoe? If what IndieBoy said about the height was correct?

Gregjazz · Fri 30/01/2009 09:49:05

I don't remember if the alarm went off or not. The lady at the cash register was nice, but she also seemed a little stressed, so I'm not surprised she forgot to take the tag off.

vict0r · Fri 30/01/2009 13:44:29

Get a powerful magnet. Afaik, that's what they have in the shops to get them off.

Snake · Fri 30/01/2009 15:47:59

Greg, you buffoon!

You could have avoided all the trouble with the hammer and chisel if only you'd put a chicken on your head, spun around three times and said, "Inky-doo!"

POOF! They come right off.

Gregjazz · Fri 30/01/2009 21:03:21

Quote from: vict0r on Fri 30/01/2009 13:44:29
Get a powerful magnet. Afaik, that's what they have in the shops to get them off.

I have some powerful magnets (earth magnets or whatever you call them), but I didn't try them since they'd have to be REALLY powerful to bend the metal piece inside the tag. I think stores use those hook things to take them off. That's what their design looks like at least.

IndieBoy · Fri 30/01/2009 22:20:54

Quote from: zabnat on Fri 30/01/2009 08:37:02
Didn't the sensor go off when you walked out the door? Or did you put the shirt in your shoe? If what IndieBoy said about the height was correct?

Depends on the size of the bag and where the tag is. It is possible, believe me. I've done tests at my work. But of course not all sensors are the same but the ones I have at work are pretty much the bog standard ones your see everywhere.

monkey0506 · Sat 31/01/2009 00:31:27

When I worked at Wal-Mart in 2007, I very briefly did some work on the cash register. The tool that we used was kind of a combination of physically prying the device apart alongside an extremely powerful magnet.

I used to annoy everyone by leaving the thing sitting on the sensor used to demagnetize the magnetic strips in games and DVDs...you know, the one that beeps when it senses the strip...it would just go off every few seconds. A loud, shrill beep letting me know that I'd left it sitting there...sitting there... 8)

Sallow · Sat 31/01/2009 04:49:30

Wow, I thought they all contained ink that sprayed you when you tried to remove the tag; I would have been terrified of the tag exploding.. but then again I'm a wimp when it comes to things like that.

zabnat · Sat 31/01/2009 13:50:30

We had one course at school where we were given Nokia prototype phones with RFID tag-readers and we had to come up with some kind of useful application using tags and the reader. You can imagine it was fun going to some stores when you have bunch of RFID tags in your backbag

(anti-theft tags are usually one-bit RFID tags which are set to 1 or something similiarly simple). I didn't try urban sprinting though.

Play_Pretend · Mon 02/02/2009 23:24:40

Heh...good puzzlin', Greg.

The funny thing is, I even know a guy right now selling those Sensormatic hooks for $50 apiece. I may not keep up with my old thievin' ways anymore, but I still keep in touch with the youngin's getting into the trade.