Turns Out Wearing a Hi-Vis Vest Gets You into Everything for Free | Hacker News Reader

Turns Out Wearing a Hi-Vis Vest Gets You into Everything for Free

vice.com

274 pointsLeoPanthera199 comments

Amateurs. I made a "press pass" consisting of a sticker printed from a laser printer reading "PRESS", highlighted yellow, and applied to the back of my highschool ID. I literally drive on the tarmac of Stapleton International Airport in Denver, in a failed attempt to meet then presidential candidate Bob Dole as he stepped off of his plane. One hour and one flash of the pass later and I landed a killer photo of he and I shaking hands outside his press junket. 16 is an emboldening age!

Pre-9/11

A classmate of mine who was a teenager in Las Vegas in the 80's used to tell me that he would get together with his friends, dress up in suits, dumpster dive for conference badges that had defects or typos, and just walk into conferences like CES.

He also claimed his mates would go out into the desert to find orgies and break them up with bottle rockets. People were too scared about being busted and were too busy running away for them to realize it was just some teenagers with bottle rockets.

Wtf? People do that in the desert?

Grew up in Vegas. We set off bombs in the desert.

It’s a wacky place. (I’m In Vegas as i type.)

Pretty sure turtlecloud was asking about the orgies.

Maybe orgies are just that normal there

They are everywhere, but when there is so much free desert, and all the good confrence halls are booked...

Depending which of Dole’s presidential campaigns this was for, it was at least pre-9/11 and possibly pre-Gulf War, so security procedures were significantly looser than they are today.

Throwaway for obvious reasons.

I work for a company that contracts to my state's law enforcement. Not even that, we contract to a company contracted to a consultant, to my state's law enforcement. I have a plain plastic card (no security measures, no chip or magstrip) with my photo and a number on it; and with that card I can get an all access pass with complementary escort at any station I care to access. It frightens me every time I work there, they rarely know work is scheduled, they do either no check, or an extremely cursory one (sometimes they even take down the number on the card); and it gives me and my coworkers total access to the facilities and all computer systems.

What a world we live in.

Coincidentally on Hacker News front page right now ... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18318647 ... a story about being black while legitimately shopping with no intention of stealing. I'm not sure the author of that article could use the hi-viz trick and get away with it ... or have the luxury of even contemplating it as a lark all in "harmless fun".

edit: grammar and emphasis

One could argue that to somebody with racist inclination a black person wearing a hi-viz might look even more credible.

Exactly. No one intentionally drawing attention to themselves could possibly be up to something nefarious, they'd draw too much attention to themselves to get away with anything.

I think GP was playing on the assumption that those employed in these traditionally low-paid jobs such as security and maintenance would predominantly be black.

I once was shadowing a deliver driver in a suburban neighborhood. We were both in high viz and I stayed in the car for this delivery. The guy rang the bell and no one answered so he followed standard process and looked for a secure location to reduce the chance of theft when he left the package unattended. He was looking for just a few seconds when a neighbor came up to hassle him, ask him what he was doing and accused him of wanting to rob the place. While wearing a hi-viz vest. Racists will see whatever they want to see. He could have been wearing a flashing hard hat too and I'm sure the neighbor still would have harassed him.

I carefully and quietly walked into an academic building with a pair of bolt cutters and walked out with a pair of bolt cutters and an iMac hefted under one arm (having relieved it of its lock-cable) and nobody seemed to even notice.

That said it was my actual job to do this- but I could have been anyone with a pair of bolt cutters!

My dad used to work as a technician for a company selling expensive hospital equipment. He says there are countless times when he or with another colleage would go in any hospital and roll out such a device. Nobody asks any questions.

At my university there were some actual thefts like this. Someone stole a beamer from a high ceiling in the middle of the day. And another time someone stole a heavy (=unliftable) new server.

You probably mean a projector (beamer is a German word, not English).

Unrelated, but TIL why the LaTeX package for making presentations is called "beamer". I guess the author is German.

Yes he is. Both TikZ and Beamer are maintained by Till Tantau of University of Bremen.

Yes, you are correct (I speak Dutch, not German, but they are very close).

In Dutch we use a lot of English words: Computer, keyboard, ... . So when I hear an English sounding 'beamer', I think it's English :).

We basically use 'projector' for anything from slide to video projector. But it seems the digital age introduce a new word 'beamer' in our language (and German), that didn't happen in English.

Beamer is pronounced just like bimmer, which to most in the US (or at least my part of it) is just a nickname for BMW cars. That said, beamer as the word for projector has that German feel of being “obvious” to it, and is neat.

In Dutch it is pronounced beamer like "Beam[er] me up scotty".

yes

In the UK beam-er is how we pronounce our nickname for BMW cars.

May have worked. I have worked in hospitals in US and there's no way you could walk in without someone (officially, the nurse in charge) asking you who you are. I was actually expelled from hospitals even though I did have a nametag and an approval to work there.

Interesting. Are these bigger city hospitals? I've visited people in several hospitals and you just walk in. Unless you actually go up to a counter to ask for help, you're free to roam. Sure, some areas are off limits. You can't go into the ER patient area without someone opening the door, and I'm sure the surgery section is off limits. But you can walk to a patient's room, the maternity ward, the cafeteria, etc. In fact, our local hospital has a pretty decent cafeteria. It's nothing fancy, but it's relatively cheap (cash only) and decent food. There are definitely people that just go there for lunch.

I’m referring to stuff zone. Most hospitals would obviously have public access areas.

At the hospital where my wife gave birth, they gave wristbands with some sort of sensor in them to spouses, partners, etc. The only way (for civilians, I assume) in to the maternity ward would open for you if you had one. It wouldn't if you didn't.

There were some other precautions they told us about to prevent someone coming in and snatching a newborn but it's been too many years to remember them.

The trick is to behave like you're not doing anything wrong.

If you have a pair of bolt cutters and you look like you're aimlessly wandering, people will notice.

If instead, you walk in and go straight into any random office, you're fine.

If you know where the building manager's office is, go straight for that and make it look like you talked to them, people won't question anything you do afterwards. (Source: watched someone do this during a pentest)

The trick is to look pissed about your job.

During my university years I orked as IT support. We always joked we could just steal computers off campus, nobody of the security team (or students) even looked at us twice when we took computers from offices and walked out with them...

I lost the key to my bike lock, took the bus home. Next AM brought a hacksaw to work. As I sat sawing through the cable, somebody I didn't know walked by and said "If you were stealing that bike, you'd be sawing a lot faster", smiled and walked on by.

One of my kid threw a temper tantrum in a restaurant, so I walk with her to go sit in the car together till she calmed down. She was screaming and crying while we were walking and a stranger with a concerned look asked if she was my daughter. I told them she was but that at that particular moment they could have her. They just walked not knowing what to do or say.

I was amused by my smart-ass answer and their reaction, but later, when everybody had come down, thought it was a good question. How do you prove you're the parent? Who's business is it to ask anyway? Do you call the police to verify every time s kid's upset? Or is kidnapping an insignificant statistic that we just live with it?

Kidnapping is pretty damn rare, at least here in the US. I say this because I have never heard of anyone I am socially connected to (including transitively) who has encountered it. (I just hear about it in newspapers, every once in a while.)

The only kidnapping I'm aware of, was someone in my friends network had a custody dispute, and the mother ran off with the child. There was abuse involved (edit: on the father's side), but unprovable.

She fled to avoid further abuse for her and the child. The judge didn't see it that way. Saw it as kidnapping.

Kidnapping her own child...

I believe, as with sexual assaults, kidnapping is most often done by someone already known, as the example you gave.

Child abduction in broad daylight and crowded place had been happening in China. A group of people consist of grandma, husband, uncles would pick on single mom with infant on the street. They would brazenly take away her infant. Of course the mom would be upset and fight. The fake family would act like they were just having a family quarrel. Bystander would just leave them be. I saw documentaries in China and police were advising people to call for police and help those who are in distress.

I would not be surprised if there are fake cops now in the fake family group. But I hope for the best for China.

I can't remember whether it was a Banksy book or article, but I vaguely recall him saying they/he got away with a bunch of pieces (in particular the designated graffiti walls) by just pulling up in a white van in the middle of the day, wearing high-vis, setting up a tent around their work and getting on with it. No one would question because it was so brazen so there must be authority somewhere. I assume it's probably also how he placed the museum/gallery pieces.

Annecdotally reminds me of underage drinking. If you stood with a pint glass at your side looking shifty you got kicked out in 5 minutes. If you were brazenly smoking a cigarette, knocking the beer back and shouting like you owned the place the bouncers just assumed no one underage would draw that much attention to themselves and leave you alone...

When I was in high school I worked at Kmart as a temp job during the holidays. They trained us on the first day to help fight shoplifting.

They told us that for the longest time they were losing large electronics and couldn’t figure out how people were hiding them. In time, they realized how it was happening. The thief would find the item he wanted and would calmly walk out the front door with the item in plain sight, even adding a quick “hi” and half smile to the greeter on the way out.

I used to do this in the dorm room cafeteria at my college, just to see if it’d work. People got yelled at all the time for filling bottles with coffee or sodas, but I’d just fill their ceramic cups up and casually drink from it while waving to the greeter. It’s bizarre what people will overlook if you don’t seem suspicious.

People enforce rules with a single minded focus that can be self defeating. Change the circumstances slightly and people are not likely to reinterpret the rules, even if this would seem “obvious”. This is one of the reasons top down management is so inefficient in the long run. Circumstances change but the person who made the rule is not around to reinterpret the rules.

A friend told me of a person in a flying club with him who went to the airport to go on a hunting trip. They had slung their guns over their shoulders and walked to the entrance of the airport to get to their plane. Security officials scanned them with hand held scanners and waved them through...

I worked at Target during high school and learned a similar shoplifting story: people would pick up expensive merchandise in the electronic department and then return them at customer service without a receipt or even leaving the store.

Also, anyone wearing Target's signature red polo and khaki pants could likely have had free access to any part of the store. There were always new employees so no one could really tell who actually worked there.

At my local Kmart years ago, a canoe got stolen and security couldn't believe someone had done it. Turns out two guys walked in, went straight to the sporting goods department, picked up the canoe with one guy holding each end above their shoulders, and walked out the front door. The greeter held the door open for them!

As another anecdote:

I worked at Walmart years ago. During one Black Friday, 2 someones walked into laywawy dept (in the back of the store), and proceeded to unhook the register! Security footage shows it but they were wearing hats, so no faces.

So, they unhook it, and load it into a cart. Then they, during the Black Friday bedlam, just push it right out of the store. Off they went.

I have a friend who was inspired by the Abignale story to create his own Southwestern Bell employee ID. He used the artwork off his phone bill and a laminator. The result passed scrutiny of a cop who wanted to know why he was performing some late night "maintenance" on a phone box.

Between his fake ID, a Bell hard hat and a tool belt with all the proper pieces including a butt set he could go just about anywhere.

One day I was skipping school and talked to a a linesman about beigeboxing and he was surprised I even know what It was as this was circa 2001 before 9/11. I just red an article about mitnick in 2600 or something similar, probably off gamefaqs.

He gave me a complete tour of how to open the panelbox, how to wire RJ11, and numbers to call and troubleshoot and an spare broken unit he had.

It wasn't really broken, one of the aligator clips just needed to be soldered --

Fun times then, this was also back when I was getting free hours via NetZero/AOL And they did some simple ANI blocking per day or something.

I used to knock about on a Friday night (also in Melbourne, funnily enough) with my Canon 1D with a 24-70mm lens and the EOS flash (430?).

I’d walk right to the front of the line of any club, with my mate, mumble something about shooting for the local music mag, and they’d wave us straight in. Never got one question.

Then there was the time that I skipped a line by pretending to be deaf, but that’s another story. (I had a deaf mate who strongly encouraged me to try this. “Works every time”, he said.)

(I’m no SJW, but it’s probably worth mentioning that I’m a friendly looking white dude. As are the chaps in this story. I suspect things work out differently if you’re not.)

What did you do with the reasonably expensive camera once you were in the club?

Take photos? The camera can also be used to get close to any bands playing, get on the side of the stage, etc.

Correct, I took heaps of photos. People, mostly; these were people/dancing clubs, not watch-a-band clubs. I posted some online but mostly not. This was pre-social-internet.

I just enjoyed taking the pictures, and people loved chimping themselves. I made a ton of friends.

The golden age of abundant club photography, roughly around 2003 iirc. Came as quickly as it disappeared again, starting with the availability of somewhat affordable DSLR and ending when people became more conscious about where their face would be published after the first of social media.

What do you mean by "I’m no SJW"?

He means he doesn't identify as a (s)ocial (j)ustice (w)arrior: that is, regularly and loudly taking umbrage and outrage at perceived social inequities.

But he still wants to point out a racial property that may have influenced his experience.

As a cyclist, I've worn a hi-vis vest while walking around after riding, and it's been weird how many people assume that I am a repair guy or even a police officer. The thesis of the article matches my experience. If you wear the vest confidently you could probably get into many things free.

"Who would claim to be that who was not?" - The Untouchables

(On Eliot Ness announcing himself as an armed officer of the Treasury department)

For some reason your post reminded me of this classic Dave Chapelle bit. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fL-1kHxsavI

I used to cycle in an orange jumpsuit I bought at a surplus store. Lots of people just about sprained their brains trying to figure out whether I was an escaped convict, but I'm an ordinary white guy with glasses so nothing ever went down.

It turns out the vest isn't required: if you walk with confidence, you can get in almost anywhere for free without waiting.

I've walked confidently into concerts (deadmau5!), sports games, bars, sales events.....

I tore tickets at a movie theater for a few years and this worked with me. You could go either left or right when you walked past me. If you looked like you knew where you were going I would never question it.

I am a repair guy or even a police officer

I've seen a few cyclists wearing gear that was obviously intended to be mistaken for police uniform at a distance e.g. blue and white checks, and only when you get closer do you realise it says "polite". Presumably this is in the hope of getting away with riding on the pavement or jumping red lights. Joke's on them - the real police never enforce those rules anyway.

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/cyclists-join-high-vi...

Looks like you can buy a variety of different styles here:

https://equisafety.com/collections/polite

It’s to try to stop drivers from driving illegally next to them.

> Presumably this is in the hope of getting away with riding on the pavement or jumping red lights.

Let's not jump to conclusions. Have you seen these folks break the law? The cyclists who wear hi-vis are much less likely break the law than cyclists who don't in my experience. In fact, I can't recall a single instance in my decade of riding where I saw a hi-vis cyclist break the law. The folks you saw probably were trying to improve their visibility.

Though, as a motorcyclist on HN told me, a driver seeing you and being angry at you is often better than them not seeing you.

People see the uniform not the face. It is a truism, and it can be weirdly triggered. For example, late August afternoon I went into Staples to buy some office supplies, and I had just happened to be wearing khaki pants and a red polo shirt which unfortunately was exactly the same color as the red 'staples' staff shirts. All through the visit anxious mothers came up to me looking for school supplies for their kids or asking if I could check in back for this or that thing. I would tell them I wasn't working there but one refused to believe me, she said I was lying because I just didn't want to do the work to check for her. I pointed out the lack of logo on my shirt but it didn't help.

In a related note I normally carry a high visibility vest and a blue hardhat in my earthquake supplies 'go bag' in my car. The hardhat was left over from the Hoover Dam tour (which gave out real hard hats as souvenirs!) and the vest I wear when I'm biking. I reasoned that after an earth quake if I am walking home I don't want aftershocks dropping bricks on my head. Several people have warned me though that if you step out into a post disaster scenario with a hard hat and a vest people will assume you have an official capacity and are there to help. You won't get a chance to walk home.

Two off-topic questions: what else is in the bag? And are there other scenarios that you've specifically prepared for?

Ok, you pushed me over the edge :-)

See : https://github.com/ChuckM/CarEarthquakePrep

Wow, thanks for writing that up! I’ve had some thoughts about collaborative prepping for “realistic” scenarios and this gives me something to chew on. Personally I’m not in an earthquake zone, but my 5th floor apartment is just about sea level in Holland so I’m thinking about what the coming decades might look like here.

  >> A lot of people ask why I have a surgical laceration kit 
    in my go-bag given that I am not qualified to actually use it. 
    My reasoning stems from what I have seen across many disasters that have occurred all over the world. 
    In the most likely scenario for the bay area, an earthquake (like the Loma Prieta quake or the Northridge quake), 
    all these people are moving around and then boom, everything stops moving. 
    At that instant in time you have a cross section of people evenly distributed across an area, 
    then some percentage of them will be health care workers (Nurses, Doctors, PAs etc). 
    And the hospitals will be far away.

There is a pretty popular subreddit dedicated to exactly this: https://www.reddit.com/r/IDontWorkHereLady/

It works both ways. If you wear something that resembles a uniform people will assume you work there (and might not believe you don't). You can use that for getting into places you shouldn't be.. or get harassed by entitled customers

Just wear an orange lanyard attached to your phone in your breast pocket.

Works in every Home Depot I’ve ever been in, and many other stores.

People don’t even bother to actually look at the lanyard enough to notice it says “Star Wars” and “REBEL” on it, with the Star Wars Rebel insignia.

>I would tell them I wasn't working there but one refused to believe me, she said I was lying because I just didn't want to do the work to check for her.

I had this happen once in a big box store. Not only did she not believe me, after repeating it a few times she started to get belligerent and called me a lazy piece of shit and that the customer is always right.

I usually try to be pretty docile, especially on business trips but I lost it at that.

I told her to shut the fuck up, I'm not a fucking employee, that I won't be fucking spoken to like that by some dumbass mouthbreathing moron and to get the fuck away from me. She stormed off yelling about getting a manager (??)

I grabbed what I came for (a mouse - forgot mine before flying and decided to get a cheap one IRL since this was pre-Amazon-locker.)

I ran into her at the checkouts, yelling. She pointed at me, frothing with rage, yelling about how disrespectful I was and that I was lucky she didn't slap me (!) and she wants me fired.

So of course, I decided to work that angle: told the manager I repeatedly told her I don't work here, that she swore at me, is now threatening me, and if he doesn't remove her from the store I will be calling the police to do his job for him.

Luckily the problem solved itself - she let out a shriek and puttered her trunklike legs out the door. (Maybe she had warrants?)

There was a gag in Machete where Danny Trejo could sneak in anywhere just by being Mexican and carrying a weed-eater. It seemed plausible.

It would definitely work in Southern California.

Wanda Sykes definitely made this an extended bit

You could probably get a whole safe-cracking burglary team of four guys into anywhere if they looked vaguely mexican, carried lawn equipment and wore work clothing.

Waaay back in school, a friend told me the key to walking around the halls during class time was to look and act like you are supposed to be there. He was right. It works well. This vest thing is just a trick for doing the same in a different context.

We combined that attitude with some fake IDs we photoshopped, printed, and laminated at home to buy booze under age. Don't draw attention to yourself and no one will pay attention.

I attended a military academy boarding school where being outside after "Taps" could technically get you dismissed. This did happen to some people. My senior year, I started going to after hours D&D games. Some people tried to dress up all in black and do the commando thing, but a lot of them got caught. I just got into my dress uniform and walked around looking official. Everyone just assumed I was "Officer of the Day."

In the regular army carrying around a manilla folder (or for extra benefits a personal folder) gets you no questions from anyone as they just assume you're doing some task for someone.

Or walking around like you know what you're doing you can walk off with pretty much anything that isn't being actively guarded since they just think someone sent you over to get it for them. My platoon sgt used to tell me "go find me <whatever>" and I'd almost always come back with it after I got tired of slacking off since I technically was working -- on asset redistribution.

or a clipboard in the navy, or ..

if you look like you're preoccupied with finding someone that usually works too

I've found the preemptive question a powerful tool as well.

If anyone seems to be on the verge of questioning you, walk up to them, look them straight in the eye, and impatiently ask them a question. (E.g. for directions)

Seems to short circuit the brain.

PS: I'm pretty sure it's also worked on would-be muggers a couple times too, spinning around and asking the person following you for a block if they have the time.

In the same way, hold a door open for someone. They will thank you, walk through, and promptly forget that they don't know who you are or what you're doing there.

Part of that with the possible muggers might be that you'd demonstrated you were aware of them. Muggers explaining their methods have said they prefer to go after the people who seem least aware of their surroundings.

My 1SG told me “there’s only one thief in the Army private, everyone else is just trying to get their stuff back”

The pitch-black side of this phenomenon: In 2011 in Norway, Anders Breivik commandeered a ferry to the Utøya island, was let onboard, heavily armed and with several heavy boxes of ammunition, going on, as we know, to kill 69 people there, mainly youngsters. All this solely on the basis of a sufficient display of authority and an obviously fake police uniform, and despite the ferry having been put on hold after the bombing of government headquarters in Oslo a little earlier in the day.

The much happier version: Robert Smalls, a slave in the civil war, manages to steal a confederate ship from his master and sail it to union lines by putting on a hat. http://www.pbs.org/wnet/african-americans-many-rivers-to-cro...

To be fair, he DID work there.

I used to be a field technician. It's really amazing how casually the front desks of important institutions would hand over telecom closet/server room keys when I asked. We wore company t-shirts, but that was it.

a found a tool bag, some parts to waive around, and a long boring explanation (real or otherwise) of why you need to be there also helps - barring that, in some buildings a screwdriver is the only key.

"We're here to adjust the phase variance on the cardinal grammeter of the retro encabulator"

"I need to install this adapter, it goes in the <technical word> and it connects to the <technical word>, I need to install it because <bullshit>.." then you kinda wander off talking about other things.

did you bring you sinusoidal dingle arm? :)

No, but the fluvial wave bearings have been recalibrated to match the impedance of the gravimetric flam.

it never gets old ! :) :) :)

Me: entry to stadium wearing company uniform, sometimes without a badge.

yeah, it's really crazy how often "hey, can i get the keys to your server room" works, with no introduction or anything.

From the article:

> Note: this article was edited on the 21/12/16 because Sean's mate was going to get fired and we really like that guy.

I remember reading that a previous Vice story about Naomi Watts published off-the-record details that put her at risk from the Chinese government.

Fucking over sources for no particular reason looks like a trend with Vice reporters.

Vice is a particularly skeezy publication. Their own reporters have been fucked over and the founders aren't just corrupt (audience size and other fraud) one of them is the leader of a right wing hate group which I'm not even going to name because I fear I'll show up in their web-crawlers and they'll harass me.

There is a guy I know that was the subject of an Oscar shortlisted documentary[0] that has a whole website dedicated to it.[1] I really think his reporting on them contributed to Disney's pullout of the acquisition. There are good reporters that work there, but that's more by random chance than by culture.

[0] Or nominated? I always get those two confused. Anyway it was Frame 394.

[1] notvice.com

Do you mean Naomi Wu?

These posts always remind me of Todd Lappin's Telstar Logistics[1] in which he makes his personal vehicle look "official" and gets away with lots adventures with it.

[1] https://telstarlogistics.typepad.com/telstarlogistics/2006/0...

[2] https://www.flickr.com/people/telstar/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chaser_APEC_pranks

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdnAaQ0n5-8

as much as i love the Telstar Logistics truck, I've found an unmarked white truck with an orange beacon light on top to be even more useful. When i used to work for city parks i rotated between a white rental truck with no stickers, and a truck that was clearly labeled with the city's logo. The unmarked truck would get you onto any jobsite, any company's yard, or through any traffic jam. The labeled truck, people knew what sort of permissions you were supposed to have.

(Typically the flashing lights allowed on non-emergency vehicles are called Amber.)

The vaguer the better, I'd say. Amber light, an antenna, black numbers on the tailgate, some reflective tape on the bumper, orange cones in the bed, a clipboard on the seat, and a hi-vis vest hanging in the back window should do the trick.

Huge fan! A long time ago my younger brother and I had another friend that had a card printing machine and we made some semi-official looking IDs (including mag strips) with names on them like "Initech", "Telstar Logistics", "Vandelay Industries", and "Amalgamated Products." These were used in a game where we'd try to get in to various places and up the ante on each other.

This article reminded me of BBC Three's The Real Hustle programme [1].

The presenters often used to wear hi-vis jackets to pull off various scams. It was surprisingly effective. [2][3][4]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Real_Hustle

[2] https://youtu.be/1vOV4-6Sozw

[3] https://youtu.be/CxappKA4YBY

[4] https://youtu.be/CRBJrSBtnKM

I think everything on that show was faked with paid actors, I remember a story coming out about it.

So it was a real hustle all along. Hmm.

The Wikipedia article linked above contains a section regarding that.

Although some "marks" had previously worked as actors or extras, they had not been hired for this purpose, and the production company had recruited participants through websites "popular with people keen to appear on television"

Personally, this didn't bother me since I was more interested in finding out how the cons worked.

Love that show! Impressive research job finding those 3 hi-vis vest clips so quickly

My friend's father was a professional photographer. His experience was that carrying _two_ professional cameras would get you access anywhere you wanted, no questions asked.

I don't need to read the article, it's well established that the average person acquiesces to perceived authority most of the time when they encounter it.

I figured it out in 1977 working for a private telcom company in Santa Clara.

We had no company uniforms or shirts, just our tool belts and butt-sets (clip-on test phone) bouncing as we walked along.

I was at one of our accounts adding some extensions, when my new (idiot) boss arrived to tell me some crap he thought was important, but wasn't.

After he finished his power trip I was a bit miffed and got cocky, saying to him, "See that computer room over there", as I pointed to the climate controlled sealed room with large glass windows and raised interior floor.

That room was full of large rack mounts computers, with large tape drives slowly starting and stopping and at least six white lab coat wearing people with clipboards walking from peripheral to peripheral looking very important, quite a futuristic looking scene at the time.

It was also guarded by a uniformed guy with a gun at the door and I told my (idiot) boss "Bet I can just walk right in that room", and he took the bait, so before he could say anything, I quickly started walking across the large room full of desks and such.

Just before reaching the guard, I made eye contact with him and he opened the door for me without a word! I thanked him, walked in, walked around the racks and people, looked behind a couple of pieces of gear and walked out.

There were no phones or phone equipment in that room, I knew that, and so did my boss, who was furious when I got back to him.

So I got another empty lecture and threatened with termination, but also knew my (idiot) boss really was an idiot, oh, and using my tool belt and a butt-set would open just about any doors for me.

So, I agree, if someone looks like they have a reason for being somewhere, they will only be questioned by authoritarians, then it's nearly always bad news with those kind, even if one has a legit reason to be somewhere.

So look for that Big Ring of Keys folks, it's the sure sign of one.

"You can go anywhere if you walk fast and carry a clipboard" - Douglas Adams

Reminds me of being a junior engineer doing radio signal measurements before and after a network optimisation.

With slightly worn hi-vis shirts, clipboards and our portable RF spetrum analyser, we got into all sorts of places from airport lounges (pre 9-11), F1 racetrack a few days before the big race to hotel suites and several corporate office buildings. We were always polite and asked permission before entering private property, but not once did anybody check our IDs nor call to confirm our story.

> It would not be an overstatement to say walking towards the ticket booth felt like getting off a boat on Normandy.

Why do people write things like this. Aside from being crass, that is literally the definition of an overstatement.

Not if it felt like it.

Where North Americans generally see crass overstatements as just that, the remainder of the Anglosphere (the author of the article being an Australian) see them as colourful humour.

Eh, I'm a North American and I found iy humorous, but I could see the confusion as it is literally an overstatement though that's what makes it poignant to me.

> that is literally the definition of an overstatement.

Erm. That's the joke.

It's like using "literally" in an intentionally wrong way: "I'm not exaggerating, here. That traffic warden is literally Hitler".

Source: I'm British so it made perfect sense to me when I read it.

In my friend of friend's neighborhood, thieves used hardhat/hi-vis vest to commit thefts.

Basically, a man with a hard hat, hi-vis vest, and a clipboard knocked on the door of a house. He claimed he needed to check some gas line in the back yard. While the resident was in back yard distracted by him, another person snuck in and stole jewelry. They hit few houses but were eventually caught by local police.

Worked at Boeing years ago, writing test code. You could sometimes get on an aircraft in (far enough) progress with a clipboard.

Hah, you beat me to it w/r/t mentioning the clipboard. Combine the clipboard, hi-vis vest, and walkie-talkie, and you're golden. In some contexts maybe throw in a toolbox or something that looks some sort of scientific instrument...

Carrying an open laptop and staring at the ceiling can get you quite far as well.

For optimal results, walk with purpose while arguing with someone over a bluetooth earpiece.

I call that "schizophonia."

I'm old enough to remember when this worked with a clipboard with some fan-fold line printer feedout on it...

Yes, what makes society possible is 99% spontaneous respect of the rules, and 1% enforcement. It's better that way.

Remember how easy and convenient air travel was before people realized they could throw planes at buildings? Now you get the TSA.

For added authenticity, ball it up, throw it on the ground and walk on it. Get it dirty, so it looks like you wear it every day.

So on to a tip that gets me through airports.

I carry a simple piece of orange paper.

Years ago, I realized that when you're running late, airport staff can give you an orange "express connection" slip. I'm sure every airline is a bit different, but to be honest nobody has ever asked to see the orange paper. Just the fact that I have one means I get to cut through every line.

I act like I'm in a hurry, and act like someone has given me authority to skip lines to catch my flight. And I get bumped to the front of the line. Ahead of first-class people even. All I have to do is make eye contact with someone, show them a hint of orange paper... instantly I get waived to come through.

Been using this trick for years.

Except raves, obviously.

And construction sites.. (works better to wear a suit jacket, strangely)

Interesting. Maybe a stray high-viz on a construction site would be suspected of slacking or needing a new task assigned. Whereas a suit is the boss's boss.

And a suspiciously clean white hard hat.

In my experience, common yellow/white hard hats are what workers wear. Management tends to wear rarer colors, like green/blue/red.

There's a defacto code here (UK), yellow is labour, blue is trades. white is engineers, grey is visitors. green is safety (H&S/medical), pink is the noob who forgot his hardhat.

Wearing theatre scrubs and hat and walking with impatience is AAA in a hospital. They'll even buzz you through swipe doors half the time if you "left my pass in change".

When my daughter was sick I used to get practically whatever I wanted (on the floors that didn’t know me by sight) by just acting like a doctor and copying the lingo. When a nurse was busy and I needed anything I’d just go ask random for it. Weird things too. I’d ask for status on orders, all sorts of stuff. I got called Dr. a lot.

When I was in primary school, around the age of 10. One friend used to change ties and go to the neighbouring school, attend a class and have lunch, then make it back for our lunch. I was flabbergasted. He said it was so easy and when confronted by the other schools staff he would say he was the new kid.

His surname was also interesting being a foreign word for "untrue". I often wonder what he is doing now.

Before I was 21 I would just give my actual, underage ID to get into bars a few times. The door person would look a bit confused sometimes, but would wave you on through.

For big concerts, you could (probably still can) buy previous backstage passes on eBay and reuse them on following shows, since they didn't always issue new badges for every show.

The other thing that usually works is just carrying something heavy.

If you act like you belong, people will believe that you do.

Amazing. I always thought it'd be useful to get one of those shirts that says "Staff" on it, but this is even better.

shameless plug, get a staff safety vest here: https://www.govests.com.au, we print these all the time, and unless it's an emergency services logo or Army, we would probably print it for you as well, just need the email sent from a official domain.

Careful, do this trick at the wrong place and people might think you work there. Or, just have a good "not my department" routine prepared.

Just go with the tried and true, "Let me go get the manager."

I work at a big stadium with pretty good security but I'll be honest. If I saw you running for the door that I just opened with my tag, and you were wearing some sort of workman outfit, I wouldn't think twice about holding it open for you.

Interestingly enough when UEFA play at the stadium they have better security than the stadium owners. Because they must have total control of every set of eyes watching their football matches. So even we get special badges to wear, and have to be pre-approved.

I am part of a volunteer organization and am reasonably confident I could go out on the road and direct case wherever I wanted to without authorization. People trust the vest.

And while I wear gear issued by my organization, it's all stuff you could order online. A lot of people buy their own gear if it has more pockets or looks cooler. I've even seen a few "badges" this year, despite that not being something our organization issues.

Vice also had another article on social engineering into a highly-secured office by pretending to be an interior designer.

https://motherboard.vice.com/amp/en_us/article/qv34zb/how-i-...

Some jobs require a certain expectation of having to bypass normal access/entry procedures. For instance locksmiths, tow-truck operators and even computer technicians are expected to quickly and efficiently 'get in' without being unencumbered.

I used to do TV technician things at music/sports events and studios where you always needed the pass and there was always security including bouncers. Being a contractor I didn't have fall-back documentation with something like 'BBC' written in big letters on the top.

However I would need access first to get in and then get the proper pass.

Mobiles weren't a guaranteed thing then so I could not just have someone meet me at the gate. So the first challenge always would be having to get past security. When I had the access all areas skills (including back stage) something like getting into Coldplay would have been a snip.

Nowadays I am back of the queue paying to get in, having to wear the right dress code etc. but for a long time I just didn't have any expectations of that. I just breezed past, no payment required, no fake ID or badge, just a smile, P+Q's, plausible story and a little bit of white, male privilege.

Now I did sometimes use my 'craft' to go to things of my own choosing - local gigs and festivals. I did find that there was one thing that you have to get right when you are in... Sometimes a bouncer will follow you and then when you blag to you mates that you got in with a feeble story they will boot you out. Offers to pay will not be accepted, you then are barred and having no mates for that evening, having to go home early.

If you are male then one way to 'social engineer without deception' straight into nightclubs where there is a strict door policy (e.g. dress code, long queue, bouncers) is to be with four highly attractive ladies. Easy, no blagging needed.

I was surprised how many people weared hi-vis vests in the UK when I visited. School children, bikers, any kind of worker with a uniform... That could definitely work there, but in my part of Europe they're only used by some construction workers or maintenance people. Only some.

okay, this thread, better than the article

I thought I was reading a good Reddit thread.

Years ago I went to a multi day auto race with friends and some older friends of those friends in an RV. There was like a half mile long line of RVs and vehicles at the gate and everyone wanted to get in early to get a good spot.

When the gate opened these guys drove up past the whole line and next to the gate. Then one of the guys donned a day-glo vest, got out, walked around the RV, got in front of next RV in the line and held up his hand, then waved the rest of us through the gate. After we were through he waved the next vehicle on and caught up with us a bit later.

Back in college days I got into clubs for free a few times by carrying a little mag-lite flashlight. Obviously you were with security, or the DJ, so they'd part ways and let you walk right in.

They also let you skip to the font of the line and get discounts: https://youtu.be/AWVxmbPKTp4?t=564

I never knew this was a thing until I became a land surveyor and forgot to take off my hi-vis vest a few times when entering different places, usually to find something to eat or drink.

What places? Like houses?

Clothing and tools appropriate for an HVAC technician work better.

Been there done that.

This is also consistent with my findings.

You can go anywhere if you look like you’re supposed to be there. Biggest life hack I know. Hi-vis is good for events / venues. Being over-dressed can be good too — wear a suit and carry a clipboard and walk with some pep in your step and few gatekeepers will risk embarrassing themselves by stopping you when you clearly are in a hurry to get somewhere and do something important with that clipboard.

similarly a cheap vest will allow a canine unquestioned access in lots of places

This seems to be fading due to overuse.

My friend whose work requires unofficial access to places has a collection of outfits for most cleaning companies that operate in the area.

What kind of work does your friend do?

Private investigator.

A similar article said if you carry a backpack of vinyl albums, club bouncers will wave you through the door.

How can they tell your backpack is full of records? My backpack won't even stay closed if it's not zipped all the way up.

These days just head phones and a laptop will do it.

Somewhere around 80-90% of the time simply being dressed "normally" and walking with purpose will get you into "secured" areas quite easily. For most of the remainder a service uniform (or a hi-vis) and some other prop like a radio or a clipboard will do the trick.

For a subreddit dedicated to this (TFA is currently first place), see https://old.reddit.com/r/ActLikeYouBelong/

This is why customer support via phone, with easy to obtain info or a convincing story, is a go-to approach for criminals. Social engineering in the right hands is simply unstoppable against our pattern matching, monkey brains.

I have thought of similar things too. But regardless of what method, I do not expect such thing would work everywhere all the time (even if it might work sometimes).

But, they say, if you fool some people sometimes, it is good enough, so, maybe it can be.

My guess is, it's not that people perceive the vest as a symbol of authority, but simply that they are tired and overworked, have no personal stake in the matter, and are barely paying attention to their jobs at all.

My preferred outfit these days is a pair of 8-Cal overalls, construction helmet, steel caps and a sack barrow. I had to step my attire up now everyone rocks the hi-vis in post-quake Christchurch :(

(2016) - but I don't think it's particularly date sensitive.

This is going to be on every YC application going forward!

I used to work retail in high school and noticed that people suddenly became deferential if I was carrying a clipboard with paper attached.

Sort of reminds me of the video game "Hitman" where changing clothing to blend in with certain contexts is one of the main strategies.

A few years ago a prankster here in the UK managed to get a job at a golf course, with the uniform and everything, and staged a prank on (then presidential candidate) Donald Trump when he was over here opening a golf course.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8Ju8wZukYQ

Similarly, a white pickup/van with a ladder on it can be a pass to park nearly anywhere.

Nearly anywhere expect in front of Florida Man's house

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=10TkoYIFR0Q

way to ruin it, guys.

a high-vis vest only gets you access to anything because not everybody knows that trick, if Vice starts publishing articles about it it's not going to work for much longer.

wait six months... it will work again . ugh

Not even that. How many non techies know about Vice or HN?

Considering this is from 2016 and vice wasn’t even close to the first people “exposing” this, as is common for them, I doubt it’ll ruin it for ya. If anything you should worry about the youtubers like alleylaw that end up getting young people thinking it’s okay.

Catch Me If You Can didn't ruin it.

The band Half Man Half Biscuit released a song about this in 2008.

http://halfmanhalfbiscuit.uk/csi-ambleside/king-of-hi-vis/

Well, that's the end of that lurk. At least in Melbourne, and I assume Sydney.

Hi-vis vest or Best Buy blue polo?

Is this an ad for Coldplay?

No. This is about social engineering 101.

Great album

Works in Melbourne down under, would probably get you arrested in Russia and shot int the States :)

This is the craziest thing I've read. Funny as bro.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com