# The Stereotypical Burglar Costume
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-stereotypical-burglar-costume/687533
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [May 2, 2014, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-stereotypical-burglar-costume/687533 "2014-05-02T19:51:41Z")
**Posts on this page:** 14
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Carryon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carryon)
#### Post date: [May 2, 2014, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-stereotypical-burglar-costume/687533/1 "2014-05-02T19:51:41Z")
I have two quick questions:
First where did the stereotypical burglar costume come from? I am assuming the movies must have popularized it. You know the striped shirts and black pants
Like this:
[http://img.costumecraze.com/images/vendors/forum/66724-Burglar-Costume-large.jpg](http://img.costumecraze.com/images/vendors/forum/66724-Burglar-Costume-large.jpg)
Speaking of which, when cartoons show burglars they always show them carrying bags with dollar signs on them. Do cartoons in other countries do this? And if so do they put like a pound sign (the L shaped sign) or the Euro sign on the bag instead?
I am putting this in Cafe Society because I am interested in knowing when it became popular in culture to represent a burglar as such
Thanks
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### Author:  [@puddleglum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puddleglum)
#### Post date: [May 2, 2014, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-stereotypical-burglar-costume/687533/2 "2014-05-02T19:56:26Z")
The striped shirt and pant are part of prison attire which prisons used to handout to make prisoners standout if they ever tried to escape. This indicates the burglar is a recent escapee. The mask is typical criminal wear to keep from being described by the victim.
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### Author:  [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)
#### Post date: [May 2, 2014, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-stereotypical-burglar-costume/687533/3 "2014-05-02T20:05:16Z")
> [@puddleglum](#):
>
> The striped shirt and pant are part of prison attire which prisons used to handout to make prisoners standout if they ever tried to escape. This indicates the burglar is a recent escapee.
I don’t think the take-away is supposed to be “Guy decided to rob the bank on his way home from the prison breakout” so much as just “This guy wears jail clothes because he’s a criminal”.
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### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [May 2, 2014, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-stereotypical-burglar-costume/687533/4 "2014-05-02T20:07:17Z")
Andrew Wyke: There you are: One striped shirt, one flat cap, one domino mask, and a bag marked “Swag”
Milo Tindle: I thought the idea was that I was NOT to be taken for a burglar.
Andrew: Styles HAVE changed, you know.
–Anthony Shaffer “Sleuth”
For the filmed version, this got changed:
AW: One striped jersey, one flat cap, one mask, and a bag marked “Loot”.
MT: Why not a neon sign with “Burglar” on it?
When Harold Pinter wrote the screenplay for the 2007 version, I think he took out this exchange altogether, which is one reason that I don’t care for his (critically acclaimed) script very much.
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### Author:  [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)
#### Post date: [May 2, 2014, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-stereotypical-burglar-costume/687533/5 "2014-05-02T20:08:29Z")
The hard part is find the money bag with the big $ on it.
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### Author:  [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)
#### Post date: [May 2, 2014, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-stereotypical-burglar-costume/687533/6 "2014-05-02T20:13:09Z")
WAG: a $ sign would be universally recognized, or the local equivalent will work as well.
The only example I remember British show _Trigger Happy TV_ had a bit where the host dressed like that. His bag said “SWAG” and he put a ladder up against a window and asked strangers to hold it while he went inside. I can’t find a specific Youtube link but there’s a bunch on there.
Add-on question: does the dollar sign have one vertical or two? Computers have made the former more popular, but I feel like I see the two line version on fake bank bags more often than elsewhere.
Tripolar: Spirit Halloween store is my first guess. Might have to buy the rest of the crap as well.
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### Author:  [@Lasciel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lasciel)
#### Post date: [May 2, 2014, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-stereotypical-burglar-costume/687533/7 "2014-05-02T20:13:57Z")
I dunno.
There’s that trio in Scrooge McDuck that is a family of whatever those dog-people Goofy is, who are constantly escaping from jail and immediately getting back into trouble. The implication there is that, yes indeed, they are immediately post-jail.
I think it makes sense for a children’s cartoon to do that - think like the old Hamburglar - it makes it less dangerous for the “criminal” to be established as known as a criminal, and different from all the other characters so that kids don’t worry so much that the regular characters might become criminals.
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### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [May 2, 2014, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-stereotypical-burglar-costume/687533/8 "2014-05-02T20:17:25Z")
> [@Lasciel](#):
>
> I dunno.
>
> There’s that trio in Scrooge McDuck that is a family of whatever those dog-people Goofy is, who are constantly escaping from jail and immediately getting back into trouble. The implication there is that, yes indeed, they are immediately post-jail.
>
> .
The Beagle Boys don’t wear striped shirts – they wear orange shirts with (usually) confusingly similar numbers on them. And they don’t carry bags marked “Swag”, “Loot”, or “$”.
They do, however, wear domino masks. In real life. And they usually seem to need a shave.
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### Author:  [@Flywheel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flywheel)
#### Post date: [May 2, 2014, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-stereotypical-burglar-costume/687533/9 "2014-05-02T20:22:48Z")
More on the striped shirt from TV Tropes’ [Blatant Burglar](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BlatantBurglar) page:
> [@](#):
>
> Striped shirts are also the old uniform of French sailors. It’s said that the association with crime came because ships sometimes stranded a bunch of sailors on the wrong side of the Channel to avoid paying them off.
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### Author:  [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)
#### Post date: [May 2, 2014, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-stereotypical-burglar-costume/687533/10 "2014-05-02T20:26:26Z")
> [@TriPolar](#):
>
> The hard part is find the money bag with the big $ on it.
Also the exaggerated walk on tiptoes.
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### Author:  [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)
#### Post date: [May 2, 2014, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-stereotypical-burglar-costume/687533/11 "2014-05-02T20:31:25Z")
> [@VinylTurnip](#):
>
> Also the exaggerated walk on tiptoes.
Good point. It explains why most burglars are so dainty.
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### Author:  [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)
#### Post date: [May 2, 2014, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-stereotypical-burglar-costume/687533/12 "2014-05-02T20:52:39Z")
> [@VinylTurnip](#):
>
> Also the exaggerated walk on tiptoes.
The stealth aspect is somewhat undercut by the obligatory [music](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5cpUa8zXIc).
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [May 2, 2014, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-stereotypical-burglar-costume/687533/13 "2014-05-02T21:03:08Z")
**Bryan Eckers** , you obviously need a [stealthier song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdJg6Duzzf4).
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### Author:  [@furryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furryman)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2014, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-stereotypical-burglar-costume/687533/14 "2014-05-04T06:53:57Z")
The first time I saw a yen sign replacing the dollar sign in an anime as a sign of greed I thought it was incredibly cute.