The internet can be both boon and bane in modern society. Going online has become an easy method of shopping for goods, handling your banking and quickly looking up historical or reference items. All of these processes make for time savers and convenient access. But of course, for many of the "good" things in life, there can also be a dark side.
Several users of the internet like to peruse the videos on Youtube for entertainment or how-to-do-it-yourself information on repairing broken items around the house or even building a project from scratch. But, if you happen to look further, you'll find it's some of the other how-to-do-it videos that provide a crime school for junior thieves and wanna-be criminals.
For instance, let's say you use a combination lock on your bicycle when you leave it at a bike rack, or maybe you use that same lock to safe guard your personal goods in a gym locker at your favorite workout facility. Better think again. Those items are no longer safe with that combination lock. And, no, the potential thief does not need a large bolt cutter to open your lock. All he needs is a knife and a pop can. Watch this video:
Yes, it's as simple as it looks. Tried it myself on an old lock with a lost combination. Just a little practice and I opened it three times in a row. Discomforting for my peace of mind.
What's that you say, you lock your car in the garage at night and sleep soundly? Then you had better know there is another video showing criminals how to break into your garage in only six seconds, and they do it without a sledge hammer:
After watching that video, I found several which then showed how to prevent the six second break-in method. Now, my garage door mechanism has that little lever wired up so it cannot be tripped from the outside. You might want to check your own garage door opening mechanism to see if you have a potential problem.
There are also videos on how to open a car door with a tennis ball, which leads me to wonder what other how-to-commit-crimes videos are out there? It's a dark side to the internet, a training school for budding criminals.
You got thoughts on this subject?
11 October 2013
5 comments:
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R.T., thanks for tipping me to something I should have known was out there, but hadn’t even considered before.
ReplyDeleteI think I spent about a half hour looking at the videos. After I played your two, a whole slew of them came up in the video insertion areas of your post. Some gave amazingly detailed information regarding lock construction and picking/bumping techniques.
My thoughts are: (1) We’ve blogged and commented about NetFlix on here, but I was surprised to see that they sponsor an online program in which bumping and picking are intricately explained/demonstrated—along with tips!
(2) The most frightening title I saw, however, was “When should you shoot a policeman”! I didn’t even look at that one; have no desire to see the maker’s thoughts on the subject.
I keep thinking of "The Anarchist's Cookbook", which seems almost harmless now...
ReplyDeleteDix, i'm not sure why people post these crime videos, unless they think it shows how clever they are.
ReplyDeleteEve, I still have my copy of The Anarchist's Cookbook, but seldom consult it as that would be like using a Commodore 64 instead of a Dell XP these days since Youtube has all these how-to videos.
(P)eople post these crime videos…(because)… they think it shows how clever they are.
ReplyDeleteI think you’re right, R.T.
Reminds me of a local firearms dealer with a big, indoor range—complete with a “shoot house”. On their ads, they used to show customers garbed in SWAT gear, armed with MP-5’s, practicing dynamic entry techniques. I never understood the need for such a market.
But, a well-heeled guy at the cigar store bought a .50 cal. sniper rifle from them (after getting a background check, and forking over for the high-sticker-price license). That guy didn’t even know how to open the bipod on his rifle, the first time he showed it to me. LOL Then, he paid a king’s ransom to attend a special school at the manufacturer’s shooting range in another state. A month or two later, the shine had worn off the game, so he sold the rifle back to the dealer.
He's actually a very nice guy. Knowing him, and talking to him over the years, I’m sure he never really even thought of using a .50 cal. to shoot somebody; he just wanted to know what it felt like to handle such a powerful weapon, to be able to say he’d mastered it.
He mentioned, afterward, that he could have been a really good sniper. I didn’t have the heart to tell him the truth: The guys who really do that job earn their way into it, over time, through an investment of blood, sweat, and sometimes tears. Instead, wearing his tailored suit and $300 shoes, he wanted to get the experience without getting his hands dirty—let alone dealing with the filth, smell and discomfort that comes with wielding such a weapon as an actual sniper.
I’m not surprised. Doesn’t information in our democrat society want to be free, especially on the internet, or so I keep reading.
ReplyDelete