# It takes a Thief **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 26, 2024, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-takes-a-thief/1009265 "2024-10-26T18:16:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2024, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-takes-a-thief/1009265/1 "2024-10-26T18:16:20Z")
I stole. Well, kinda. I confess. I was walking down the walk on the side of a building to get to the Subway(the sandwich place, not the public transportation thingy) As I often do I was scanning to ground. I find the most interesting things like that. I saw a roll of tape. Full roll. Yeah, picked it up and put it in my bag. Ivy was mildly interested and asked “Girl, what garbage you found now?” I pishawed her. We went in the Subway and got our sandwiches headed to the Orange Menace and drive to Sonic for my tea. When I get home I’m in my bag for something and see the tape. Oh, that’s not tape. It’s a roll of stickers. 500 stickers. Wait. What are these? These ain’t regular, at all. Shiny silver discs. They are those “theft detection” things. You know it makes the door ding if you’re walking out with a 5 finger discount. 🤔 hmmm? What can I do with these? Are they safe for kids to play with? Can’t write on them. Tried. They’re not magnetic. Experimented. Super sticky. Best advice so far: to use them like freezer tape. I stole theft deterrent devices, inadvertently. Sorry. It takes a thief, like me. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2024, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-takes-a-thief/1009265/2 "2024-10-26T19:50:55Z")
When I worked at Eckerd’s, we’d prank each other by putting the stickers on each other’s backs. 😄 ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2024, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-takes-a-thief/1009265/3 "2024-10-26T19:56:28Z")
You didn’t steal them. You found them and you’re just holding onto them until you find the rightful owner. And you may have used a couple of them, accidentally. Yeah, that’s the story. Although “I stole a roll of theft prevention stickers” is pretty damn funny! ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2024, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-takes-a-thief/1009265/4 "2024-10-26T20:32:35Z")
I _know_ a person who stole _collected_ a Neighborhood Watch sign and displays it prominently. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.winston_oboogie/32/2945_2.png) [@Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Winston_OBoogie)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2024, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-takes-a-thief/1009265/5 "2024-10-26T20:42:20Z")
I once stole a Chicago police department baseball cap. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2024, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-takes-a-thief/1009265/6 "2024-10-26T21:01:00Z")
Now, that’s a thing, right there. 👍 ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2024, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-takes-a-thief/1009265/7 "2024-10-26T21:08:33Z")
I’d try to give them back. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2024, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-takes-a-thief/1009265/8 "2024-10-26T21:14:36Z")
To whom? I found them on a sidewalk. It wasn’t near a shop or store. A mini-strip mall: Subway. Tax prep place. Salon. 2 empty store fronts. A chiropractor office. The anchor place is where I have Dialysis. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2024, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-takes-a-thief/1009265/9 "2024-10-26T23:41:36Z")
You’d never believe what I found today. I can’t tell you. So don’t ask. I was warned against saying so. No it wasn’t cash. I have found many dollars on the ground in the past. I tried with no success in ever finding who it belonged to. Finding stuff is my super power. I just have the skill to see things and instantly recognize it as valuable. ---
**Author:** ![BippityBoppityBoo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bippityboppityboo/32/5745_2.png) [@BippityBoppityBoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BippityBoppityBoo)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2024, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-takes-a-thief/1009265/10 "2024-10-27T00:46:31Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > I just have the skill to see things and instantly recognize it as valuable. Truth. You found Baylis after all. ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2024, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-takes-a-thief/1009265/11 "2024-10-27T01:09:49Z")
> [@glee](#): > > I’d try to give them back. > [@Beckdawrek](#): > > To whom? > I found them on a sidewalk. It wasn’t near a shop or store. I realise it may not be easy. But my first instinct is to look around to see who might have dropped them. If it’s valuable, hand it in the the police. I just feel that’s the right thing to do… ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2024, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-takes-a-thief/1009265/12 "2024-10-27T01:35:28Z")
Occasionally in this life there are things either someone doesn’t want, doesn’t care to protect or just plain accidental loss with no recourse for that _thing_ to be returned. It’s not like they dropped a Hope Diamond. It’s a roll of stickers. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2024, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-takes-a-thief/1009265/13 "2024-10-27T03:31:14Z")
I can think of a good use for the stickers if you can rig up a detector like the stores have that sounds an alarm when a sticker tries to pass by. You recently posted about how much you like your new leather chair, and that you were worried some of your menagerie might want to sharpen their claws on it. My suggestion was to keep it in a separate room, such a study, that was out of bounds for pets. You see where I’m going with this? Set up an alarm in the doorway, and put one of these super-adhesive anti-theft stickers on the collar of every animal that inhabits your house! Though I’m sure Bayliss would go to his speaking buttons and say something like, “WTF, woman? That siren as I was sauntering into the study scared the shit out of me! Literally.” But they’ll learn. Eventually. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2024, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-takes-a-thief/1009265/14 "2024-10-27T03:49:48Z")
I’ll get Son-of-a-wrek right on that. I’m sure it will be ok. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Spiderman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiderman/32/230_2.png) [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2024, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-takes-a-thief/1009265/15 "2024-10-27T13:58:31Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > When I worked at Eckerd’s, we’d prank each other by putting the stickers on each other’s backs. 😄 “Accidentally” put one on some rando’s jacket or purse in a store. Watch the hilarity when they walkout & the alarm goes off. Years ago I bought a new winter jacket, paid for it & left the store w/o issue. When I went _in_ to other stores their alarm went off. After a couple of stores I realized it was my new jacket but I couldn’t find it, eventually found it deep in some inside pocket. It was almost flat which is why I couldn’t find it when ‘patting down’ my own jacket ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2024, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-takes-a-thief/1009265/16 "2024-10-27T15:19:46Z")
I had something like that happen with a wallet I bought at Kohl’s several years ago. There was a theft detection tag in the wallet that they didn’t take out when I bought it, and for a few months after that I’d occasionally trip the theft detectors as I was walking out of stores. I finally put two and two together and figured it out. ---
**Author:** ![racer72](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/racer72/32/3075_2.png) [@racer72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racer72)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2024, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-takes-a-thief/1009265/17 "2024-10-27T15:40:59Z")
I stole a “Protected by ADT” sign from the ex BIL’s place. I had read that just having a sign like this was enough to deter many thieves. About 5 years later he stopped by my house to return a tool I had loaned him. He joked about stealing the sign because someone had stolen his. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2024, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-takes-a-thief/1009265/18 "2024-10-27T16:47:40Z")
> [@glee](#): > > If it’s valuable, hand it in the the police. > > I just feel that’s the right thing to do… Perhaps, but I can’t see the police being arsed enough to investigate where a roll of stickers came from, they have better things to do with their time. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2024, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-takes-a-thief/1009265/19 "2024-10-29T06:20:05Z")
> [@BippityBoppityBoo](#): > > You found Baylis after all. Nope! ---
**Author:** ![Eric1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/3bc359/32.png) [@Eric1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eric1)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2024, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-takes-a-thief/1009265/20 "2024-10-29T06:53:05Z")
I almost had a similar experience except the key that I found was obviously for a safe at a nearby CVS pharmacy. It was jammed against the bottom of a shopping cart way out in the parking lot. The store manager freaked out when I handed it to him at the front counter. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-takes-a-thief/1009265.md?page=2)