I was in the union studying with a friend for a test. A guy at the next table comes over to us, neither of us know him, and he asks if we will watch his stuff “just for a second.” We agreed, and after he left we joked about why we should be trustworthy or any more reliable than just leaving his stuff and hoping no one would take it. This has happened to me at other places too. At a movie theatre someone will put down some coats to save a seat and then go to the concessions and ask me to watch their stuff.
I mean, someone could have come up and said, “Oh no, it’s OK, I’m his friend and he wants me to bring this to him,” and then just stolen his stuff even though we were “watching” it.
If the guy comes back and everything is gone, and he says, “I told you to watch my stuff!” Is there anything he can do if I just look at him and say, “Oops. Sorry.”?
Is there any kind of legal liability that is passed on to someone when you ask them to watch your stuff? Is it just that some people look more honest? Does a person want a false sense of security? Does this happen all over the country or just here in the honest, God fearing, red state Midwest?
It happens all over and it makes no sense to me either. It happens to me all the time at work. This institution is sprawled over many city blocks, but our mailing address is actually the address of my building. People will come, think that they’re where they need to be, I’ll tell them it’s not so and then they’ll want to leave their stuff with me while they go find the right place. How do they know I won’t steal the stuff? How do they know I won’t walk away and leave it unattended? And, a little secret for ya, I usually don’t remember the face of the person who leaves the stuff in the first place so who knows who I’m giving it to.
A stranger left a baby in a baby carriage with me one time.
Ok, not really, but it happened like this. I was out biking with a friend and we stopped off in Peavey Plaza which is a little park right next to the Minnesota Orchestra’s home in downtown Minneapolis. We were chatting on a bench and a woman comes up with a baby in a carriage and tells us thanks for watching the baby and here’s her number and she just walks off. We sat there pretty nonplussed. I turned to my friend and mention that this reminds me oddly of a show on Comedy Central called Trigger Happy TV. So we started talking about dinner and he suggests eating the baby. Not long after that the producers for that show come down to point out the cameras and produce the release slips for showing the clip. I only occassionally watched the show but never saw that clip or any of the clips that were taken down there (we watched as they filmed another one and she pretty much had the same expression as we).
I got to as school that requires all students to buy laptops, and needless to say, people take them everywhere. It’s very common for somone to ask you to watch it as they go to the bathroom. The idea is that most people are decent and wouldn’t steal your stuff. Personally, I would never do it. My laptop is a $2000 piece of equipment I need for my classes, if I have to go to the bathroom, I either use the locking cable that came with, find someone I know to watch it, or take it with me.
It happens all over the place. I do it every once in a while- if I have something unwieldy to pack up and need to be gone for less than a couple minutes. For example, if I am in a computer lab, I’d rather not pack up my hard drive and cables if I am just going to the bathroom. Generally if a person looks like they belong where they are (like, has been using the computer lab, too) they can be trusted. The idea isn’t to prevent concentrated attempts at theft, it’s to keep random strangers from picking it up as they pass by, and often serves the secondary function of keeping a spot open. They arn’t expectig you to outwit potential theives, but should some random guy sit down and say “What is up with this stuff” and chuck it on the floor or something, you could say “The owner will be back soon”. I wouldn’t do this with something that I’d be upset if it got lost or stolen.
People do this because surprisingly enough it works.
They did a study of this phenomena at the beach I think in Hawaii last year. It turns out that if you ask someone to watch your stuff in most cases they do. The experiment involved asking strangers to watch someones beach stuff while the owners went swimming or for a walk or something. As a control the same type of stuff was left near other beach-goers who were not asked to watch over it in the owners absence. Then others involved in the experiment came up to rip off said stuff. In most instances the “watched” stuff was saved by the stranger watchers. On the other hand nearby beach-goers who were not asked to “watch” did not interfer with the ripper-offers and instead watched as the stuff was taken away.
I can think of several reasons for this;
By asking you are making contact, and humanizing both yourself and the “watcher”
The “watcher” now knows you more than the other strangers on the beach. You are acquaintences now.
The “watcher” can more easily recognize that the ripper offer is not you
I must be living in a distrustful area! I can’t remember anyone I didn’t know asking me to look after there stuff. And I’d only ask a friend to do it for me.
This happened to me a few time when I was studying in the library. The time I’m in there are usually the “peak hours” (meaning a lot of people are in the library at the time) and if they pack up their stuff to go to the washroom, or find a book, when they come back, it usually means their spot is taken. I’m thinking, they ask me to look after their stuff, because when they come back, and it’s missing, they can say “Hey, what happened to my stuff?!” and if someone did indeed come along and say “I’m friends with this guy, he asked me to get his stuff.” I’ll be able to tell him so, and perhaps give him a description of what the guy looks like. And if it’s me who stole his stuff, then he’ll be able to tell the cops what I looked like because he’ll have to had looked at me while he was talking to me, right?
Outside of library, like the theatre, if someone puts a jacket next to you, then the people who come in will assume it’s you or your friend’s jacket and you’re saving that seat and won’t bother to even touch it.
Yep. We’re not required to purchase laptops, but a number of us do, and they can also be checked out for use while you are in the library. Generally, I study in the same area of the library and see the same people in that area daily. We’ve gotten to the point that we do ask each other to watch our stuff/laptops, but we also carry on conversations with each other.
I’ve had strangers ask me to watch their stuff, and I’ll keep half an eye out, but I’m not going to stop doing my while they’re gone.
Well how about this theory:
If you ask one person in a crowd to look after your stuff it will only get stolen if that one person happens to be a thief. However if you leave your stuff unattended, then your things will be stolen if any one of the many people in the crowd happens to be a thief.
I was once standing outside a BART station in the middle of Oakland, waiting for my friend to pick me up. A guy on a bike stopped and asked me where street X was–I said I had no idea, but there was a map down in the station. He biked away, then cam back (not having found the street) and asked me to watch his bike while he went down to look at the map! Stunned, I stood by the bike as he disappeared without waiting for an answer. He was gone for probably 5 minutes.
When he came back, I lectured him of the stupidity of handing me, a random stranger, his bike. He grinned and said, “Well, I trust you.” I said “Well, see, that’s not good!” He wasn’t from Oakland (obviously) but was stationed at the Navy base in Alameda. I think he was Southern. Anyway, my friend drove up as I lectured him, and wanted to know why I was apparently picking up a stranger. Her comment, upon hearing my tale, was “Stupid white boy!” I had to agree.
I’ll go with ** dejahma ** on this. By asking you to look after his stuff he or she is placing their trust in you and you will look after said stuff just the same as you would your own.
I saw a set-up like this on a TV show once, where they set up a hidden camera and filmed a guy asking someone to watch his bike for a minute. Then they had a different person come by and try to steal the bike. Most people protected the bike from being stolen, including a pair of grungy homeless folks. Can’t remember the name of the show, but I’ll bet it was some A&E production about honesty or some such.
Woman I knew went to an upscale bar and was waiting for a friend to show up. She ordered a drink, had to pee and asked the guy next to her to watch her stuff while she went to the restroom.
Five minutes later she came back and her purse, and the guy, were gone.
I was recently in an airport in London, waiting for my plane gate, and a lady wheeled a baby carriage up to me, and without a word turned to walk off – I was a bit alarmed, and stood up and said politely, ‘Miss! You’ve left your baby!’
She was actually quite annoyed with me!
But how on earth did she know I didn’t need to go to my plane in a few minutes? I think I see the point others are making above, when people will ask, will you watch over my stuff. But this lady didn’t say a word, just rolled the child up to me, and turned and walked away very quickly…strange stuff.
It works to an extent because the person asking the watcher has seen the watchers face, they can therefor give a discription to the authorities if that person and their belongings go missing.
It should be noted that this action has been considered a dangerous thing in UK airports and train stations due to the risk of terrorist attack. So people were expected to report to authorities any thing they were asked to ‘watch over’ for a moment, incase the items contained a bomb. A watched over item does not seem to be unattended, and so won’t raise the normal security worries for staff at such places.
My grandad lived opposite the local house-breakers (who had too many friends in the police to be ‘caught’)…whenever going away, he’d leave his house keys with them, to “look after the place”. They always did.
Last time I was in America I travelled by train or bus to get to my destinations, at one stop over a woman who had a small child and a ton of luggage asked me to watch her stuff while she went to the rest room, I watched her stuff till she came back, then asked her if she’d watch mine while I went to the rest room, when I came back we had a nice chat about where I was from and how my holiday was going …
You people might fall for this Alan Funt Candid Camera stunt. A woman walked down the street with a man who had on a dog collar with a leash which the woman was holding. She would stop random people and asked them to hold her husband’s leash while she went into a jewely store, or whatver, for “just a moment.”
A surprising number complied and refused to turn the guy loose even when he pleaded with them that this was no way for a wife to treat a husband.
I must be a crabby old man. I don’t hold nuttin’ for nobody. I won’t even hold somebody’s place in line (English translation, queue).
The same kind of thing happened to Mr. Legend in an airport bar (I believe it was Denver, but I’m not sure). A little old lady struck up a conversation with him and asked him to watch her things while she went to the restroom. A little while later, he left his things with her while he went. When he got back, his carryon and jacket were there, but the little old lady and his airline ticket (which had been in his jacket pocket) were not.