Archive: Using aluminum foil to shop lift - The Explosives and Weapons Forum

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Using aluminum foil to shop lift

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Author	Topic: Using aluminum foil to shop lift
Feticidal Fantasy Frequent Poster	posted December 03, 1999 02:02 AM I know this has nothing to do with explosives or weapons, but I was unable to find anything else on the web that was helpful. I saw on a COPS tv show that these 2 girls lined a bag with tin foil and this prevented the alarm from going off when they left the store after stealing items with alarm tags on them. does this really work? I'm talking about the real skinny type of alarms that they use on CD's and books, not those big ones like on clothes. ------------------ Feticidal Fantasy- http://www.darksites.com/souls/vampires/feticidal/ "Keep your gun as your constant companion."
Predator Frequent Poster	posted December 03, 1999 09:39 AM The big ones they use on clothes are mainly removed by a machine with a relatively strong magnet imbedded in it.. How do I know this? They had one on the counter of a shop I bought some clothes from a long time back, and I was wearing a watch with metal hands, and I wanted to test my theory so I deliberatly placed my watch over the empty machine while waiting for her to accept my money, after making a note of the seconds mentally. The result was my watch was a few seconds slower than it should have been ( I was counting in my head, 1 1000 2 1000 etc ) I'm theorisin that if you bought a magnet into a changing rooms the tags could be removed without any hassle. As for the alumininum foil.... I'm not sure about that one :/
VeHeMT Frequent Poster	posted December 03, 1999 01:06 PM Some systems are so weak that simply smothering the object with your body (covering it with your hands against your body) will impede the sensors. I am unsure as to the effectiveness of this but I will look into it further since my sister works at a department store.
Dr-D Frequent Poster	posted December 03, 1999 04:02 PM The stickers on CD's are so easy to get rid of. Usualy the plastic contraption on the CD is just to make it hard to open the CD and to freak people out. There are stickers that if you peel off you will see a metalic strip under them... thats what sets off the alarm. Those are so easy to get rid of as the store who sells the CD puts em on. For some added fun, take the stickers off and put it sticky side up on the ground or actualy put it on someone's clothes so when they walk through the detector it sets it off muahahha >
nbk2000 Moderator	posted December 03, 1999 05:17 PM The foil stickers that have the coiled looking pattern on them can be easily defeated by stabbing them with a knife to break the circuit. A nail will work nicely also. A lot of packages come with the stickers sealed inside of them so you can't peel them off. But if you can see them, you can kill them. The foil thing works like a faraday cage to keep the tag from disturbing the RF field emitted by the tag detector. The field flows through the foil without reaching the tags. The clothings tags have small, spring loaded ball bearings that engage a notch in the post the tag has. The magnet is a circular type that has one pole on the inside, the other pole on the outside. The ball bearings are attracted to the magnet with enough force to overcome the springs, thus they no longer engage the notch, and the cap can be removed. The magnets cost about $30. ------------------ "The knowledge that they fear is a weapon to be used against them." www.50megs.com/nbk2000
Predator Frequent Poster	posted December 03, 1999 06:38 PM Hhhhmmmmm Nbk2000, can you tell us how a simple passing over a device renders these 'coils' inoperable?
nbk2000 Moderator	posted December 03, 1999 11:14 PM I'm not sure what you mean by "passing over" means, but I'll explain anyways. If the picture doesn't show go to http://www.freeyellow.com/members7/nbk2000/alarmtag.jpg . The coil acts as a resonator that causes the RF field it passes through to go out of phase, and it's that phase shift that sets off the alarm. By breaking the continuity of the coil, it's no longer able to cause a phase shift. Thus defeating the alarm. As for the foil, that works because the RF energy flows through the foil like electricity through a wire. Since the field doesn't reach the tag, its not disturbed, and the alarm isn't set off. If your still not clear on this, use a patent search and read the manufacturers patents. ------------------ "The knowledge that they fear is a weapon to be used against them." www.50megs.com/nbk2000
Predator Frequent Poster	posted December 04, 1999 08:45 AM Ah I see.... The question above was referring to how do those "alarm deactivating" machines disable the coil, without physical contact from it? You know that plastic covered area of the desk on which they place your tagged goods. When you pay they place the goods over the plastic and it somehow disables the coil from setting off the alarm. Anyone know how theese work? :/
Feticidal Fantasy Frequent Poster	posted December 04, 1999 10:43 AM NBK2000, I've seen alarms like the one you scanned before. Those are easy, I just remove them. but at the library, I tried to steal this book. I looked on every single page, inside the spine, inside the front and back cover, under the liner on the front and back cover, i looked EVERYWHERE! I thought it was safe, and I walked out and it went BEEP. I have no idea where the alarm is so i just wanted to line my backpack with tin foil so i didn't have to worry about finding it. think that would work? ------------------ Feticidal Fantasy- http://www.darksites.com/souls/vampires/feticidal/ "Keep your gun as your constant companion."
Predator Frequent Poster	posted December 04, 1999 03:21 PM It could have been embedded under the front or back cover.. or the coil might have been cleverly disguised as some thread used for binding the book together... Or it could have been a transparent thing that you might have overlooked :/
nbk2000 Moderator	posted December 04, 1999 05:47 PM Wrap the books in foil. That's safer than a backpack that might have a tear in the lining somewhere. The new aluminum oven bags are especially handy for this. As far as the deactivators, I know they're magnetic in some way, but how they work exactly, I don't know. ------------------ "The knowledge that they fear is a weapon to be used against them." www.50megs.com/nbk2000
Ho ju Moderator	posted December 04, 1999 10:31 PM would the aluminum foil bag defeat all alarm tags or just the one above? ------------------ -Knowledge is power, power leads to corruption, corruption is a crime, crime doesn't pay. So if you know to much you will go broke!!!
VeHeMT Frequent Poster	posted December 05, 1999 01:07 AM FF, did you check on the index tag(sticker) on the spine? Rip one of those off of another book and check each layer, it might be in there.
nbk2000 Moderator	posted December 05, 1999 05:11 AM I think any tag based on the RF foil tag will be defeated by an aluminum wrap. ------------------ "The knowledge that they fear is a weapon to be used against them." www.50megs.com/nbk2000
Dr-D Frequent Poster	posted December 05, 1999 02:20 PM Predator, the device that you see in Walmart for example that they "sweep" an item over it with a plasictic sticker is a demagnatizer. If you notice on the pad that they use it says DO NOT PLACE CREDIT CARDS HERE. because it will demagnatize the magnetic portion of them. The actual thing they demagnatize is a white plastic sticker that is raised about 1/2 a centimeter and has a barcode on it and underneath it a solid metal strip. This is similar to the stickeres Hastings uses. They use a green sticker that says Hastings over and over on it and underneath it is a thin metal strip. I'm not sure how these work in terms of detecting it, maybe just a cetain amount of magnetic charge is set to make the alarm go off, but any lower/higher power of magnets won't... Anyways, these are pretty easy to get rid of. Allthough the walmart ones uses a pretty damn sticky glue on their stickers, which is almost like epoxy :P And since it also has a barcode on it which they scan, the barcode in the package might be set to make an alarm go off if that is scanned instead of the sticker. What I think is stupid is wallmart puts these stickers on cassete tapes. It isn't to smart to demagnatise a sticker that is on a music tape :P
Dr-D Frequent Poster	posted December 05, 1999 02:26 PM FF, our library uses the RF stickers if I remeber correctly. The sticker that is on the inside cover where they stamp the date or put the date back sticker looks just like the picture NBK2000 posted on the underside. All I can say is check every damn thing on the book, and check it inside and out better :P Next time you check out a book do a search all over on it to try and locate it. Our libray uses the RF system on stickers like I said above, but after you check it out you walk through the sensors with the sticker still on the book. They somehow temporaryly disarm the sticker I guess. Not to sure. You could always hold your bag above the 2 sensor things on the way out or throw it around it real fast...
VeHeMT Frequent Poster	posted December 05, 1999 02:32 PM At my library they just move the book from one counter to another, and you walk through the detector. Same with the local video stores here.
nbk2000 Moderator	posted December 06, 1999 05:29 AM If you really want the book, after you've checked inside the pages for a tag, cut the book free of the covers. You'll have all the pages still together with the binding. And be sure to check that too before you leave. ------------------ "The knowledge that they fear is a weapon to be used against them." www.50megs.com/nbk2000
megalomania Administrator	posted December 06, 1999 03:43 PM Since I tend to keep books a long time, and since not every library will give me a membership (you have to be a student at university libraries, and they always have the best books) I tend to fancy a book heist. I have observed the location of the alarm trigger in a varity of locations. A narrow metal strip about 2-3 mm wide is located on a random page on the inside of some books near the spine, its hard to see by flipping because they nestle it in there. On hardbacks a more modern placement is inside the spine, that space in between the pages and the hardback cover, some libraries add their own covers and stick em on at this time, that is an overlooked area. And the use of a barcode sticker somewhere on the outside cover can discuise a sensor. ------------------ Visit Megalomania's Explosives and Stuff at http://surf.to/megalomania

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