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Topic: The Thief (Read 1376 times) |
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grungy
Newbie
Posts: 20
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In a museum, there is a huge golden plate which is worth over ten million dollars. A well known thief is, of course, like all thieves, after it. However, there is an electronic field that forms a complete sphere around the plate, and when anything touches it, it sounds off the alarm. The thief knows that if the alarm sounds he does not have enough time to escape the building before the guards will rush upon him.
There is a switch to turn off the alarm. However, it is surrounding by fifty guards and it is near impossible to get past them.
The thief can enter the building and leave the building unnoticed, but once the alarm sounds - you got it, he's a goner.
The thief concocts a master plan to steal the plate, and he succeeds. What was his plan?
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cchris
Senior Riddler
Posts: 470
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Re: The Thief
« Reply #1 on: Dec 15th, 2006, 8:40pm » |
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My usual answer - decoy?
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raven
Senior Riddler
"Why is a raven like a writing desk?" ~M. Hatter
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Posts: 560
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Re: The Thief
« Reply #2 on: Dec 15th, 2006, 8:48pm » |
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Since answers like bribery and likewise disguise are too common, how about
 :: a personal HPM device :: ref
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| « Last Edit: Dec 15th, 2006, 8:49pm by raven » |
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grungy
Newbie
Posts: 20
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Re: The Thief
« Reply #3 on: Dec 15th, 2006, 9:08pm » |
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No, it's not a HPM device... and Cchris, what do you mean by a decoy?
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flamingdragon
Uberpuzzler
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Re: The Thief
« Reply #4 on: Dec 15th, 2006, 9:45pm » |
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Use a decoy to distract the guards away from the switch. 
Or if all the guards are facing away from the button and u can't tell when it's pressed, disguise as one of them, and drop from behind them, press the switch, and then yell u heard something in the other room while u go get the plate.
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"The fool doth think he is wise, yet the wise man knoweth himself to be a fool"
"He who commands the past, commands the future. He who commands the future, commands the past."
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cchris
Senior Riddler
Posts: 470
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Re: The Thief
« Reply #5 on: Dec 15th, 2006, 10:44pm » |
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I like the idea of killing the power. However, there's most likely a backup generator.
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raven
Senior Riddler
"Why is a raven like a writing desk?" ~M. Hatter
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Re: The Thief
« Reply #6 on: Dec 16th, 2006, 4:05pm » |
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Set up a discreet remote control device to activate the alarm [ a micro-sized pea shooter ], hide it where it will not be found, over the course of weeks, months,etc... periodically activate the alarm. When the guards become inured to just another false alarm, put on a disguise and go get your plate.
Which makes me wonder, what is the reset procedure for the alarm?
Or the old classic: Find an (possibly easier) access point to when they clean, inspect, etc. the plate and coax them into needing to clean, or inspect it.
Which makes me wonder, of the master minds in this crowd, which might qualify as master criminals--if they wanted to be?
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| « Last Edit: Dec 16th, 2006, 4:09pm by raven » |
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grungy
Newbie
Posts: 20
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Re: The Thief
« Reply #7 on: Dec 17th, 2006, 2:15am » |
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Raven is insanely close.
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Grimbal
wu::riddles Moderator
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Re: The Thief
« Reply #8 on: Dec 17th, 2006, 6:43am » |
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Less hi-tech: just release a few birds in the room. They will trigger the alarm over and over until the guards decide to shut it for the night. Take the plate then.
PS: but if they have 50 guards, why don't they use them to guard the plate?
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| « Last Edit: Dec 17th, 2006, 6:44am by Grimbal » |
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alien2
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Re: The Thief
« Reply #9 on: Dec 17th, 2006, 3:17pm » |
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Does the thief have partners, or he works alone? If the latter, what would you do if the police tells you to freeze? 
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alien2
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Re: The Thief
« Reply #10 on: Dec 17th, 2006, 3:39pm » |
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Perhaps he replaced the plate with the fake one, and put a dead fly beside it? Or he made a call using his cellular phone, saying that there is a bomb in the museum. When they get a bomb threat, they must evacuate the building, if they buy it. That would buy him some time.
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Whiskey Tango Foxtrot
Uberpuzzler
Sorry Goose, it's time to buzz a tower.
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Re: The Thief
« Reply #11 on: Dec 17th, 2006, 3:44pm » |
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Dress up as the janitor, maintenance man, or the guy who cleans plates.
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"I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use." - Galileo Galilei
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raven
Senior Riddler
"Why is a raven like a writing desk?" ~M. Hatter
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Re: The Thief
« Reply #12 on: Dec 17th, 2006, 5:55pm » |
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Phase one: Surveillance
Some snotty bubble-gum blowing kid wanders through the museum waiting for his parents to want to leave. He gets too close to the electro-alarm-sphere and accidentally spits his gum out on the plate while trying to blow a bubble...
When the alarm goes off, do all the guards rush to the plate? Or, do some stay at the switch? Do they take the plate away? Or, just reactivate the alarm?
"REallY mister, some lady paid me to spit my gum on the plate!" 
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cchris
Senior Riddler
Posts: 470
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Re: The Thief
« Reply #13 on: Dec 17th, 2006, 8:13pm » |
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Something like that, except an accomplice. Someone leans a little too close, or falls and trips into the alarm. Once that goes off, time to rush in and shut down the alarm (while the guards are returning). Then, get back to hiding, grab the plate, and make it out.
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raven
Senior Riddler
"Why is a raven like a writing desk?" ~M. Hatter
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Re: The Thief
« Reply #14 on: Dec 17th, 2006, 8:52pm » |
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That's not exactly where I was going with it 
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WombatDeath
Junior Member
Posts: 89
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Re: The Thief
« Reply #15 on: Dec 18th, 2006, 4:08pm » |
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In the months leading up to the heist, plant and detonate bombs in various locations within the city. Call the police in advance of each blast, citing a code word. You may wish to concoct a grievance of some sort as a decoy motive.
Then on D-Day, find a convenient place to hide in the museum and call the police with a bomb threat at the museum. A previously-constructed underground escape route would probably come in handy.
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alien2
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Re: The Thief
« Reply #16 on: Dec 18th, 2006, 5:54pm » |
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He pretended to be a statue. There are a lot of statues in the museum, so no one noticed. Can you stand still like that for 24 hours?
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alien2
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Re: The Thief
« Reply #17 on: Dec 18th, 2006, 6:06pm » |
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He does not have enough time to escape, but he has enough time to hide in the ladies rest room. The guards will not check there, because a woman is to week to carry the huge plate. You have to be one muscled male thief to carry this plate.
Quote:| he does not have enough time to escape the building before the guards will rush upon him |
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Or he lets guards to rush upon him, and then he escapes the building. When they realize that he is armed like commando, they get the hell out of there.
Quote:| There is a switch to turn off the alarm. However, it is surrounding by fifty guards and it is near impossible to get past them. |
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The thief touches the sphere, so the guards leave the room with the switch. He hides in the ladies room. He hears them running by, running straight to the huge golden plate that is worth over ten million dollars. He then gets out, and proceeds to the room with the switch. He turns off the alarm. When there is no alarm, the guards forget what happened, plus they think that nothing is missing. The thief then leaves the museum through the front door ten million dollars richer. All fifty guards loose their job tomorrow.
Quote:| The thief can enter the building and leave the building unnoticed, but once the alarm sounds - you got it, he's a goner. |
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He can leave the building unnoticed, so what is the problem?? Or once the alarm sounds, he's a goner, so he does leave the building, as a corpse. Then his wife claims his dead body, because they are still technically married, and takes the golden plate that he hided in his clown pants.
Quote:| The thief concocts a master plan to steal the plate, and he succeeds. What was his plan? |
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He double crosses his partner, in that, he kills him with the golden plate, and puts a silver plate in his pants. All fifty guards jump on his dead partner like flies on turd, because that is their job, and they were all previously football players. I am talking about American football, not soccer.
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| « Last Edit: Dec 18th, 2006, 6:52pm by alien2 » |
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raven
Senior Riddler
"Why is a raven like a writing desk?" ~M. Hatter
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Re: The Thief
« Reply #18 on: Dec 18th, 2006, 7:17pm » |
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Iceman, your third idea above is close to one direction I was going with it... I was more thinking that he triggers the alarm, the guards vacate the switch (since the alarm has already sounded--who cares about the alarm switch), he goes and rigs the switch with a cut-out or some remote method to deactivate it, when the dust clears, he is one plate richer....
But I was waiting to see if grungy is coming back to answer any of my questions. 
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| « Last Edit: Dec 18th, 2006, 7:18pm by raven » |
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jollytall
Senior Riddler
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Re: The Thief
« Reply #19 on: Dec 19th, 2006, 5:01am » |
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Just ask Peter O'Toole or Audrey Hepburn.
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Ghost Sniper
Senior Riddler
Do not hide. It is useless.
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Re: The Thief
« Reply #20 on: Dec 19th, 2006, 10:09am » |
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I got one. He could use sleeping gas to subdue the guards, then turn off the switch and get the plate.  Well it could work.
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| « Last Edit: Dec 19th, 2006, 10:10am by Ghost Sniper » |
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*sob* I miss my mommy... *blows nose* huh, I'm on? oh right.
(thinks to self) Time for my speech to these college kids.
"Reason is more important than all emotions..."
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cchris
Senior Riddler
Posts: 470
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Re: The Thief
« Reply #21 on: Dec 19th, 2006, 11:14am » |
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on Dec 19th, 2006, 5:01am, jollytall wrote:| Just ask Peter O'Toole or Audrey Hepburn. |
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They ate Breakfast? Well, one of them at least?
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jollytall
Senior Riddler
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Re: The Thief
« Reply #22 on: Dec 19th, 2006, 11:31am » |
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What breakfast?
Actually they showed How to steal a million.
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denis
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Re: The Thief
« Reply #23 on: Dec 19th, 2006, 12:29pm » |
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Yes, the heist in film "To Steal a Million" is very simillar to the situation depicted here. It occurs in a museum where the art is protected by a beam that triggers the alarm when the beam is interrupted by a hand or object moving into its field.
http://www.geocities.com/moviecritic.geo/reviews/h/howtosteal.html
How they solved it was pretty ingeneous. It would work quite well here too. In this film, the protogansist has to think of a way to turn the beams off without knowing where the control switch is.
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| « Last Edit: Dec 19th, 2006, 12:33pm by denis » |
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cchris
Senior Riddler
Posts: 470
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Re: The Thief
« Reply #24 on: Dec 19th, 2006, 3:03pm » |
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You said Audrey Hepburn and I immediately thought "Breakfast at Tiffany's", though it has absolutely nothing to do with this riddle.
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