Tuesday, March 11, 2008

My Mother In-Law the CRIMINAL!!!!

So my Mother in-law is in town to help my wife when our baby is born any ol' day now. She brought some baby clothes with her. One of them had an anti-theft tag still stuck on it. The clerk said to ignore the alarm, that the system was busted and everybody was setting off the alarm on their way out. I think the clerk was lazy or had a busted remover. Or a friend helping them jack clothes, you never know.

ANYHOW this little 2 piece red and white short-suit thingy was held together with a "don't steal this or NINJAS will KILL you" tag. You know, the beige kind, rectangular with a little 4-sided pyramid on it. I did a little googling and got good information about how to remove an ink tag with ball bearing retainers, but this isn't that type. This is the type with a leaf spring to hold the pin at a notch. Apparently, the release is by squeezing the pyramid just so.

I used a dremel and cut the pyramid off. Then a pointy object to pry the leaves of the spring apart to loosen the grip on the pin. Apart it came. I cut the rest open and it was about as primitive as could be. No ink in this one, just an electromagnetic resonator that probably says "hey" when the door alarm says "hey".

No freezing involved (doesn't work, the ink won't freeze anyhow) because I cut it off and didn't have to worry about ink. This one didn't have ink in it anyway.
No lighter involved, although that might have worked to get the pyramid off. It would just have made the spring warm.
No ink involved. I felt cheated, sort of like Mel when she got a ferocious lick hound of a pit-bull.

Oh well, at least the tag is off.

P.S. if you want to say something about being a thief or helping would-be thieves, shove it. They already know how to do it or are about to be arrested anyhow. And my wife's mom is just a victim here; victim of a store clerk without a clue or a care about the store's bottom line.

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