Illegal activity, What Have You Thought About?

[Blarg King]

Eh, it might work. But the thing is, theres cameras everywhere. Not trying to go all conspiracy theorist on you, but the fact is if your in a a mall, or even the entrance to a store, odds are theres cameras that can see you. So really your chances of getting away with it depends on how much whoever is in charge cares.

I mean, once just for fun I built on of those little devices that can turn off any TV, and was turning the TVs off in Wal-Mart. After about a minute I looked around and I can see security guys giving me the STARE. I left pretty quickly, but the point is, they seem to see everything.

 

[starlight]

Eh, it might work. But the thing is, theres cameras everywhere. Not trying to go all conspiracy theorist on you, but the fact is if your in a a mall, or even the entrance to a store, odds are theres cameras that can see you. So really your chances of getting away with it depends on how much whoever is in charge cares.

I mean, once just for fun I built on of those little devices that can turn off any TV, and was turning the TVs off in Wal-Mart. After about a minute I looked around and I can see security guys giving me the STARE. I left pretty quickly, but the point is, they seem to see everything.

I feel the same way.....cameras everywhere. Do you guys think "if no one saw you do it" would they investigate and review cameras just because a game machine had a prize gone. Would they review the security cameras if you won the prize legitimately.

My curiosity is would you get away with it if "no one" physically saw you do it?

Update: The one I know of is called, Sega Key Master

 

[gozert]

That's like the best idea I've seen in a while. Like others said, an IR laser could do it fairly unnoticable.

 

[Ehgemus]

maybe this would make a better VET thread, we dont want to be giving any impressionable people ideas

Yeah the vet section may have been a better place.

Blarg King- it's funny you bring that up about the remote and TVs at Walmart. It reminds me back when I was in high school I used to have a universal remote that was programmed to all the TVs in the school, you can just imagine what I did with that.

 

[Teej]

Sigh.

Stealing is wrong.

If you want to rationalize and say, "stealing is only wrong, if the person you steal from can't afford the loss"

or


So, lets flip it around...I'm not rich per se, but, If someone stole a $300 3 w 445 laser from me, I could afford it....my life would not be severely impacted.

Does that mean that if YOU knew I could afford to lose it, YOU'D steal it from me?


How about if someone stole something of yours, that you could afford to lose?


How small an item would be OK, for YOU, to have stolen from you?

IE: You don't get to pick WHAT, but something of yours will be missing one day, something you can AFFORD to lose.


If there's a rich guy, say Bill Gates, lives a few miles away, and you find out his alarm system is off, and his house is wide open, and there's guys heading over to loot the place...is that OK?


For me, its NOT about if I'd get caught or not...its about right/wrong.

Morally, I would not like myself if I did things that were wrong.

Does everyone have their OWN LINE they will or won't cross? Sure...no one I know of is 100% right all the time. Heck, we take broad spectrum antibiotics that kill millions of innocent bacteria just to get the ones making us sick.


If I were starving and my children were starving, etc, and the only way to keep them alive was to steal food, OK, I do think that I would do that if all other alternatives were exhausted...but, at that point, I'd be doing it REGARDLESS of whether or not I'd be caught, because, NO criminals think they will be caught, at least that's what I see in the prison systems...and, it WOULD BE an act of desperation anyway, do or die so to speak.

Stealing because you rationalize that you want something and think that you can get away with stealing it...to me at least, just seems wrong.

I think that that is morally wrong, yet, I might do it anyway...because I WILL do what I think is wrong under some circumstances, but NEVER based upon if I might get caught or not, but upon the degree of consequences (Starvation?) for NOT stealing...and that's my line in the sand.

For those of you who wouldn't steal if you thought you'd get caught/would steal if you thought you wouldn't...regardless of the desperation of your circumstances/need for the item:

YOUR line in the sand might be drawn by the stick you think will beat you if you get caught.

:thinking:




Stuff like popping balloons, mischief vs harm, etc...to me at least, are not off limits. I WOULD (Personally) not pop balloons at a party where they were a part of a decoration thing where someone would feel sad about the balloons, IE: The moral equivalent of smashing the table centerpieces, etc, is not nice. If the balloons are random/I perceive the guests would be amused rather than upset, etc...sure, fair game.






I also differentiate between THINKING about something, and DOING it. Anyone with a good imagination might start THINKING about something, the perfect crime, banging that hot babe, etc...but not DO it because they HAVE filters, such as their consciousness and personal morality, etc....or, at least the fear of punishment.

For some, it seems, the filters are broken, so they act more impulsively. Others, they needed to calibrate the parts that judge the odds of success/failure...so that they avoid MORE jailtime, etc.

 

[Alaskan]

Sigh.

For some, it seems, the filters are broken, so they act more impulsively. Others, they needed to calibrate the parts that judge the odds of success/failure...so that they avoid MORE jailtime, etc.

Man, speaking of filters, there was this hot banging girl showing me to some ones office yesterday and all I could think was how perfect she was and wanted to flirt, but fortunately, my filter was firmly in place. A man 30 years older, married, fat and balding would not be appreciated for such, that would be professional death... Maybe it wasn't a filter after all, just the reality of the situation. The problem men face when they age is their minds don't change, that 25 year old girl is just as beautiful and desirable to you when you are older as they were when you were their age.

Off topic, oops... I'm bored sitting in a small communications hut on the north shore of Alaska above the arctic circle.

 

[Pman]

Ummm, if you steal you are a thief. No bell suddenly goes off when you hit a certain number. There's no justification other than in your own minds for how many times you have to do it to be called one.

 

[Alaskan]

ex-thief?

 

[Teej]

ex-thief?

LOL


I believe there can be ex-thieves.

Most children below a certain age cannot really internalize right and wrong as concepts, and, tend to view likelihood of punishment instead.

There have been studies on cognitive development, and, essentially, as a classic example:

If children are described two scenarios, involving two kids, one who wanted to help clean the kitchen, and accidentally knocked over the cookie jar, so all of the cookies were ruined, and the jar was broken...

...and one who was stealing a cookie, and just took one, but the jar was unbroken, etc...

...Below a certain stage in cognitive development, children tended to say the kid who was trying to clean but broke the jar was "more bad" than the kid who stole a cookie, because the kid who broke the jar did more damage/ruined more cookies.

Bad was proportional to the severity of the damage, and not related to the motives.

After a certain age, they will flip to saying the one who stole 1 cookie was "more bad" than the kid who broke the whole jar...because they can then take motive into account.

So, a 4 year old might be fine with stealing, and, BE a thief...but, later, see the error of her ways, and steal no more...becoming an EX-Thief.


Technically, I suppose a person is an Ex-thief when they stop stealing...so, right after the last theft, before another one...as, technically, they stopped stealing. If we add motive back in though, and count their view of the process as having changed, or not, we would be better at understanding if they were GOING to steal again....and, if not, I'd count that as them being an EX-Thief.

Otherwise, its like you being an ex-programmer, etc, when you go home after a day of programming, because you stopped for a while. If you will program again, to me, you're not an ex-programer.



I'm not sure what the significance would be of being an "ex-thief", in that being an "Ex-fetus" or an "Ex-pubescent" or an "ex-4th grader" or an "ex-murderer" would be in the overall scheme of things. The statute of limitations would come into play as far as legal ramifications, but, morally...I think the best anyone can do is to do what they can at the time it becomes relevant.

If we assume there's no hell, and no jail, etc, to worry about...so that your past is NOT relevant for a new situation, all you can do is act righteously NOW, if you can.

I know some guys in prison have the attitude that "I'm going to hell for what I already did anyway/I already have 2 life sentences anyway, so what's the difference?" IE: They might as well continue to kill, steal, or deal, as they are going to get the same punishment whether they do any new crimes or not.

How many life sentences can they make you SERVE anyway? Etc.

Whereas if all you can do is do what's right, NOW, and the past is the past...its possible to think change might matter.


So, We sure don't want criminals to NOT be punished for their crimes, but, it WOULD help humanity if they didn't think that change was pointless.

 

[Polonium210]

Ya this should have been in the vets section.. Giving noobs bad ideas here...

 

[vortish]

This just seems like a BAD idea to me. But that is my personal opinion. Theft in any form to me is wrong! but that is my moral compass talking. You do what you think you know is right and go from there.

 

[Alaskan]

I have to agree, any way you cut it, it isn't right. You could be arrested for it too. Still, the temptation would surely be strong with a laser pointer in hand.

 

[Pi R Squared]

I agree with some of the above statements, some of you should be ashamed of yourselves for considering it. Especially if you are in the United States, don't do it, don't forget that this is the easiest country in the world to get arrested and end up in jail or prison, and then your life is permanently ruined, remember we have more people in prisons than any country in the world, both numerically and percentage of the population, also once your in police custody or even when being arrested anything can happen to you, you can easily get beat up or tased or even killed. If you were prosecuted for such a crime you would certainly lose all your lasers and you would probably be prohibited from owning or handling any laser as a condition of your parole. So be careful and think before you do anything tempting. One more thing about Walmart, next time your there look up, every last part of the store is covered by cameras, probably the restrooms too.

Alan

 

[SteveT]

I

So what I'm about to tell you is just something that popped into my mind and not something I actually did. I know we all have these thoughts from time to time.

So me and my wife was at the mall a few weeks ago and she put a few bucks in one of those machines that you can win iPads ipods and various other prizes. The game she was playing is where you have to maneuver a small pair of scissor type cutters and cut the string to release the prize. We both payed a few times with no luck but came very close. :thinking: Just than It came to mind that if I had my 2W laser with me I can cut that string from rite through the glass. My wife asked if I could actually do that and I told her, without a doubt.

I had a few goes on this game at a holiday resort last year; both my kids witnessed the scissors making contact with the same string in two successive goes; the blades may as well have been made with butter! Needless to say I left empty handed.

 

[Ehgemus]

I have to agree, any way you cut it, it isn't right. You could be arrested for it too. Still, the temptation would surely be strong with a laser pointer in hand.

Yeah if I would have had the laser in hand it would have been hard to resist. Specially after putting 10 bucks in that machine.

 

[Polonium210]

Also something to consider is the great possibility of unwanted reflections from the glass.

I know the key master game has a mirror in the back...