# Inspected by Number 12 **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 26, 2004, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inspected-by-number-12/247092 "2004-05-26T00:24:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![flurb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/51bf81/32.png) [@flurb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flurb)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2004, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inspected-by-number-12/247092/1 "2004-05-26T00:24:54Z")
What is the point of those little tags that come in packs of tube socks and most other mass produced clothing items that say “Inspected by Number 12” or some such? Are they supposed to reassure me, the consumer? “Thank God these tube socks were forged under the steady eye of Number 12, and not that roustabout 11.” Are they ever used for tracking purposes? Will they ask me for the Inspector’s Number if I call the tube sock consumer help hotline to complain that the elastic is too loose? And what exactly does “Number 12” denote: an individual, an inspection team, a machine, or what? Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![Meeko](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e495f1/32.png) [@Meeko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meeko)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2004, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inspected-by-number-12/247092/2 "2004-05-26T03:51:28Z")
There was an Episode of “Pete & Pete” (Nickelodeon Live action sitcom) entitled “Inspector 43”. ‘Younger’ Pete has always noticed the tags, and whats more, Inspector 43 would always be the number. Pete figured that it was his destiny to find Inspector 43… He does so, and spends the rest of the episode becoming his apprentice, in the end he turns down the job. ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2004, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inspected-by-number-12/247092/3 "2004-05-26T04:33:11Z")
Presumably if you called the company and told them your package contained defective socks or was missing one, and could tell them that it was inspected by number 12, they’d have a way of tracking down the problem. ---
**Author:** ![nocturnal\_tick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/3d9bf3/32.png) [@nocturnal\_tick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nocturnal_tick)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2004, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inspected-by-number-12/247092/4 "2004-05-26T13:02:06Z")
> [@commasense](#): > > Presumably if you called the company and told them your package contained defective socks or was missing one, and could tell them that it was inspected by number 12, they’d have a way of tracking down the problem. Yeah but for larger companies are you saying there is only one “number 12”? I like to think it’s like the television series [“The Prisoner”](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061287/) but then that’s just me… 😃 ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2004, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inspected-by-number-12/247092/5 "2004-05-26T14:46:39Z")
I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed, or numbered. I am not a number, I am a free man! ---
**Author:** ![HoldOnThere](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e36b37/32.png) [@HoldOnThere](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HoldOnThere)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2004, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inspected-by-number-12/247092/6 "2004-05-26T16:38:04Z")
I sure hope Number 12 doesn’t try the item on as his / her way of inspecting them. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2004, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inspected-by-number-12/247092/7 "2004-05-26T16:57:57Z")
> [@HoldOnThere](#): > > I sure hope Number 12 doesn’t try the item on as his / her way of inspecting them. 🙂 Two guys who worked together were both laid off, so off they went to the unemployment office. When asked his occupation, the first guy said, “Panty stitcher…I sew the elastic onto women’s panties.” The clerk looked up panty stitcher. Finding it classed as unskilled labor, she gave him $300 a week unemployment pay. The second guy was asked his occupation. “Diesel fitter,” he replied. Diesel fitter is listed as a skilled job, so the clerk gave the second guy $600 a week. When the first guy found out he was furious. He stormed into the office to find out why his friend and co-worker was collecting double his pay. The clerk explained, “Panty stitchers are unskilled, and diesel fitters are skilled labor.” “What skill?!” yelled the panty stitcher. "I sew the elastic and he tries them on and says, “Yep, dese’ll fit 'er.” ---
**Author:** ![furryman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/furryman/32/99_2.png) [@furryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furryman)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2004, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inspected-by-number-12/247092/8 "2004-05-27T19:23:44Z")
If my clothes aren’t inspected by Number 6 I refuse to buy them.