Phony Guards
TIGARD, Ore. (AP) – Tigard police say two men dressed as security guards fooled a pair of bank customers into giving them deposits. Police spokesman Jim Wolf says the phony guards stood outside a night deposit slot at the Wells Fargo Bank at 9200 S.W. Washington Square Road on Friday evening and and told the victims it was out of order. The men offered to take the money and make the deposits when the bank reopened.Wolf says the men wore uniforms and had badges and guns. The night deposit slot was covered by a sign saying it was out of service. Police learned of the crimes when a business contacted the branch to ask about its deposit. The bank says it has never had a problem with the slot.
I have always been interested in reading about all the classic Scams and Con games. The really interesting thing is that most of them have been around for over a hundred years and yet still work today. The above article is a case in point. The bank guard scam has been around for as long as there have been night deposit slots or ATM’s. For the price of a cardboard sign and a uniform rental these guys were able to get people to willingly hand over their money to them. The victims probably even thanked them for it, thinking it was saving them a trip back to the bank the next day. No need for guns and violence, instead they just rely on peoples blind trust of authority figures and inherent laziness of not wanting to drive around all night looking for another branch or holding on to the money till the morning.
I totally recommend:
“How to Cheat at Everything: A Con Man Reveals the Secrets of the Esoteric Trade of Cheating, Scams, and Hustles” (Simon Lovell)
It’s a really good book on all sorts of scams and cons. My all time favorite is the section on Carnival games which shows you exactly how the games are rigged to best part you from your money.
Got to love NY… »« Myrtle ave 1951
I included the scanned slide I have of Myrtle from 1951 which shows the rails and stones in question.
Other then random musings on the history of paving the local streets, which probably no one finds interesting but me, not too much has been going on. Work is going good, still doing fire debris training. We are working on some practice cases where we get the data and have to figure out what if any ignitable liquids were present. This is the second level of practice cases, which are quite a bit harder then the first set as one could imagine. Still it’s interesting work. Tomorrow I will start testing the first can of soil+gasoline that I had talked about in my last post. I ended up making 4 cans of soil, so will do 1 a week and see what if any changes occur in the gasoline patterns. The science geek in me is really interested to see what sort of results I get.
Yeah I am THAT big a nerd that I am excited to see what science I can do on dirt. 
Phony Guards »« Er…it’s for science!
So at work I am currently training in the Fire Debris section. Basically I am learning how to analyze evidence from fire scenes and see if there are any ignitable liquids present. This could indicate the fire was intentionally set, or not…not my call. All I do is say what’s there or not there really.
ANYWAY…for part of the training one side experiment we are doing is to see the effects of soil microbes on Gasoline. Literature says that stuff in soil can actually “eat” some compounds in gasoline. So to test this the plan is to add some gasoline to dirt, let it sit, and see what happens. So there I am out back behind my apartment building last night with a small metal can and a large slotted spoon digging up some dirt from the little garden area we have against the back fence. This is all fine and good at first, but it seems that my new landlord (who up to now I have met exactly once when the old one brought him around to meet all of us) was doing some work down in the basement, the door to which opens on the back of the building in full view of the garden area. So from HIS prospective he opens the door to see someone squatting down behind his building shoveling dirt into a can with a slotted spoon.
He finally said something like “uh hi what’s going on?” and I realized who it was and got up to introduce my self and told him exactly what I was doing back there. I didn’t really go into much detail other then where I worked and that it was “for science” which really I have found works quite well in a large number of situations. He was cool with it all once he realized who I was and all that and we both went on our ways. If nothing else, I suppose, it gave him a odd little tale to tell at home or work the next day.
Myrtle ave 1951 »« The truth is out there…unfortunately
