# Why are burglars associated with striped jerseys?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-burglars-associated-with-striped-jerseys/629061
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [July 22, 2012, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-burglars-associated-with-striped-jerseys/629061 "2012-07-22T18:49:23Z")
**Posts on this page:** 10
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [July 23, 2012, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-burglars-associated-with-striped-jerseys/629061/21 "2012-07-23T12:05:19Z")
Andrew Wyke: There you are – one flat cap, one black mask, one striped shirt, and a bag marked “Swag”.
Milo Tindle: I thought the idea was that I was NOT supposed to be taken for a burglar
Andrew Wyke: Styles HAVe changed, you know.
Milo Tindle: Not enough. It’s asking for trouble.
Andrew Wyke: You ARE pickey. Let’s see what else we have…
— Anthony Shaffer, _Sleuth_
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### Author:  [@srzss05](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/srzss05)
#### Post date: [July 23, 2012, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-burglars-associated-with-striped-jerseys/629061/22 "2012-07-23T13:11:16Z")
> [@njtt](#):
>
> Well, when I was growing up in England in the 1950s and '60s I understood them to be prison uniform
I grew up in the US, and it was the 60s and 70s, but that was always my understanding as well. It made sense in a comic-book way, even to a pre-teen before the internet.
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### Author:  [@1Adam12](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/1Adam12)
#### Post date: [April 11, 2018, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-burglars-associated-with-striped-jerseys/629061/23 "2018-04-11T20:48:40Z")
This is an old thread, and I don’t see a way to post images as an attachment, but here is an example of what I think the original post was referring to:
On Google Images, search for “advertisement hastings piston rings,” and you should see several ads using this character of a thief: a well-built tough with scruffy 5 o’clock shadow, wearing a red & white horizontally striped sweater, black pants and a red beret. (Interestingly, no mask in these examples.)
The particular example I have in my possession appears on page 267 of the February 1949 edition of Popular Science, so the motif was obviously used in the US, too. I always thought the image was a take off on the conservative middle class stereotype of the post-WWII beat movement. (Note the beret that is almost alway included with the outfit.) Much like a '60s-era Nixon supporter might have classed all hippies as good-for-nothing druggies, I thought the insinuation was that a criminal was likely to be one of those damned beatniks. Jack Kerouac, et al may have reshaped our modern image of the beat generation, but at the time they first emerged after the war, I don’t think they were much appreciated by mainstream America.
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### Author:  [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)
#### Post date: [April 12, 2018, 12:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-burglars-associated-with-striped-jerseys/629061/24 "2018-04-12T12:14:38Z")
Lincoln x-ray Ida.
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### Author:  [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)
#### Post date: [April 12, 2018, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-burglars-associated-with-striped-jerseys/629061/25 "2018-04-12T12:51:27Z")
> [@leahcim](#):
>
> As an alternate, the “blatant burglar” article on tvtropes mentions an association with French sailor uniforms, with the idea that they were stranded on the wrong side of the channel and turned to a life of crime.
I heard the same thing. Burglars are often depicted wearing berets, which were also part of French sailors’ uniforms.
Also, not necessarily that they are stranded on the wrong side of the channel, but rather that their ship is in port, and the sailors come ashore to rob us.
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### Author:  [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)
#### Post date: [April 12, 2018, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-burglars-associated-with-striped-jerseys/629061/26 "2018-04-12T13:32:06Z")
The mask comes from the masquerades of the 17c:
> [@](#):
>
> Depictions of a burglar wearing a simple domino mask can be found as early as 1871, in an advertisement encouraging women to arm themselves for home self-defense.
The shirts seem to have come from the American penal system of the 1820s:
> [@](#):
>
> The striped burglar’s shirt was originally inspired by the striped, duotone uniform of prison inmates. The striped uniform was introduced as part of what we now call the “Auburn System” of penal management, which began being practiced around 1820. Under this system, prisoners were largely kept in solitary confinement, and made to perform hard labor in complete silence. The uniforms introduced with this system consisted of shirts and pants in matching, horizontal black-and-white/gray stripes, and were meant to make the inmates instantly recognizable, much like some brightly colored prison uniforms do today.
> [https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/decoding-the-classic-burglar-outfit](https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/decoding-the-classic-burglar-outfit)
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### Author:  [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)
#### Post date: [April 12, 2018, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-burglars-associated-with-striped-jerseys/629061/27 "2018-04-12T13:36:04Z")
> [@1Adam12](#):
>
> This is an old thread, and I don’t see a way to post images as an attachment, but here is an example of what I think the original post was referring to:
> On Google Images, search for “advertisement hastings piston rings,” and you should see several ads using this character of a thief: a well-built tough with scruffy 5 o’clock shadow, wearing a red & white horizontally striped sweater, black pants and a red beret. (Interestingly, no mask in these examples.)
You can’t post images as an attachment, but you can post a link, like this: [advertisement hastings piston rings - Google Search](https://www.google.com/search?safe=off&biw=1280&bih=844&tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=aV_PWpPwHaqF0wKiz5eoBQ&q=advertisement+hastings+piston+rings&oq=advertisement+hastings+piston+rings&gs_l=psy-ab.3...5898.8719.0.9029.3.3.0.0.0.0.117.345.0j3.3.0....0...1c.1.64.psy-ab..0.0.0....0.WiLVjzsik-o)
Apparently, the company [still exists and still uses that mascot](https://www.hastingspistonrings.com/), but I couldn’t find any information about him.
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### Author:  [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)
#### Post date: [April 12, 2018, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-burglars-associated-with-striped-jerseys/629061/28 "2018-04-12T13:38:03Z")
> [@1Adam12](#):
>
> This is an old thread, and I don’t see a way to post images as an attachment, but here is an example of what I think the original post was referring to:
[Like this](https://www.google.com/search?q=advertisement+hastings+piston+rings&client=firefox-b-1&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjl34qh7bTaAhUDxYMKHS0SAyAQ_AUICigB&biw=1056&bih=509). (Type something, highlight it, and click the button with the blue circle on top of an oval, which means a (chain) “link” to the “world” wide web.)
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### Author:  [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)
#### Post date: [April 12, 2018, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-burglars-associated-with-striped-jerseys/629061/29 "2018-04-12T13:39:17Z")
The Beagle Boys from Donald Duck comic books always wore red sweatshirts with their prison numbers on the front. They also wore billed caps and masks.
[https://goo.gl/images/9gLNRj](https://goo.gl/images/9gLNRj)
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [April 12, 2018, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-burglars-associated-with-striped-jerseys/629061/30 "2018-04-12T13:43:39Z")
I figured that they wore prison uniforms because they had just broken out of prison moments before (using a file that their Ma baked into a cake for them, of course).
EDIT: I posted that before I saw **Fear Itself** ’s post, and I meant it in general, but as it happens the Beagle Boys were the specific example I was thinking of.
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