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        riddles >> what happened >> The Thief
        
(Message started by: grungy on Dec 15th, 2006, 5:44pm)
Title: The Thief
Post by grungy on Dec 15th, 2006, 5:44pm
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?
Title: Re: The Thief
Post by cchris on Dec 15th, 2006, 8:40pm
My usual answer - [hide]decoy[/hide]?
Title: Re: The Thief
Post by raven on Dec 15th, 2006, 8:48pm
Since answers like bribery and likewise disguise are too common, how about

:o :: [hide]a personal HPM device [/hide]  :: ref (http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/munitions/hpm.htm)  
Title: Re: The Thief
Post by grungy on Dec 15th, 2006, 9:08pm
No, it's not a HPM device... and Cchris, what do you mean by a decoy?
Title: Re: The Thief
Post by flamingdragon on Dec 15th, 2006, 9:45pm
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.
Title: Re: The Thief
Post by cchris on Dec 15th, 2006, 10:44pm
I like the idea of [hide]killing the power[/hide]. However, there's most likely a [hide]backup generator[/hide].
Title: Re: The Thief
Post by raven on Dec 16th, 2006, 4:05pm
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?
Title: Re: The Thief
Post by grungy on Dec 17th, 2006, 2:15am
Raven is insanely close.
Title: Re: The Thief
Post by Grimbal on Dec 17th, 2006, 6:43am
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?
Title: Re: The Thief
Post by Iceman on Dec 17th, 2006, 3:17pm
Does the thief have partners, or he works alone? If the latter, what would you do if [hide]the police [/hide]tells you to [hide]freeze[/hide]?   ;)
Title: Re: The Thief
Post by Iceman on Dec 17th, 2006, 3:39pm

Perhaps he [hide]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[/hide].
Title: Re: The Thief
Post by Whiskey Tango Foxtrot on Dec 17th, 2006, 3:44pm
[hide]Dress up as the janitor, maintenance man, or the guy who cleans plates.[/hide]
Title: Re: The Thief
Post by raven on Dec 17th, 2006, 5:55pm
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!"  :P
Title: Re: The Thief
Post by cchris on Dec 17th, 2006, 8:13pm
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.
Title: Re: The Thief
Post by raven on Dec 17th, 2006, 8:52pm
That's not exactly where I was going with it  8)
Title: Re: The Thief
Post by WombatDeath on Dec 18th, 2006, 4:08pm
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.
Title: Re: The Thief
Post by Iceman on Dec 18th, 2006, 5:54pm
He pretended [hide]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 h[/hide]ours?
Title: Re: The Thief
Post by Iceman on Dec 18th, 2006, 6:06pm
He does not have enough time to escape, but he has enough time to [hide]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[/hide].   8)




Quote:
he does not have enough time to escape the building before the guards will rush upon him

Or he [hide]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[/hide].  




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.

The thief [hide]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[/hide].   8)




Quote:
The thief can enter the building and leave the building unnoticed, but once the alarm sounds - you got it, he's a goner.

He can [hide]leave the building unnoticed, so what is the problem[/hide]?? [hide]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. [/hide]




Quote:
The thief concocts a master plan to steal the plate, and he succeeds.  What was his plan?

He [hide]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[/hide].  8)
Title: Re: The Thief
Post by raven on Dec 18th, 2006, 7:17pm
Iceman, your third idea above is close to one direction I was going with it... I was more thinking [hide] 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...[/hide].

But I was waiting to see if grungy is coming back to answer any of my questions.  :-/
Title: Re: The Thief
Post by jollytall on Dec 19th, 2006, 5:01am
Just ask Peter O'Toole or Audrey Hepburn.
Title: Re: The Thief
Post by hiyathere on Dec 19th, 2006, 10:09am
I got one. He could [hide]use sleeping gas to subdue the guards, then turn off the switch and get the plate.[/hide] ;D Well it could work.
Title: Re: The Thief
Post by cchris on Dec 19th, 2006, 11:14am

on 12/19/06 at 05:01:12, jollytall wrote:
Just ask Peter O'Toole or Audrey Hepburn.



They ate Breakfast? Well, one of them at least?
Title: Re: The Thief
Post by jollytall on Dec 19th, 2006, 11:31am
What breakfast?

Actually they showed How to steal a million.
Title: Re: The Thief
Post by denis on Dec 19th, 2006, 12:29pm
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.
Title: Re: The Thief
Post by cchris on Dec 19th, 2006, 3:03pm
You said Audrey Hepburn and I immediately thought "Breakfast at Tiffany's", though it has absolutely nothing to do with this riddle.
Title: Re: The Thief
Post by jollytall on Dec 20th, 2006, 12:15am
That's why I said two names. Btw I never liked the Tiffany film, if I have to name one AH film, then it is the Roman vacation.

But back to the original riddle: In the film they used a [hide]boomerang[/hide] to remotely activate the alarm many times before the guards got fed up and switched it off. It leaves no trace unlike the birds Grimbal suggested.
Title: Re: The Thief
Post by Grimbal on Dec 20th, 2006, 2:25am
It doesn't matter if the birds leave traces.  (and Swiss birds are clean, they won't "leave traces"  ;D).  If the guards know there are birds flying around, they might as well shut that damn alarm.  If they know what causes the alarm, it is even less suspicious than if the alarm rings for an unknown reason.

And by the way, I also saw the movie, I was trying to remember the title but I couldn't.
Title: Re: The Thief
Post by grungy on Dec 23rd, 2006, 11:24pm
Yep.  You pretty much got it.

The idea was that he hid inside a broom closet, poked a broom out consistently setting off the alarm until the guards thought it must be malfunctioning and got tired of running to it, so he switched it off.  The boomerang, and birds, and other ideas would work.
Title: Re: The Thief
Post by Iceman on Dec 24th, 2006, 9:18am
If you switch off the alarm, the fifty guards still have duty to protect the golden plate. So what are fifty guards doing in one room, are they playing poker there? Is there a round table? Perhaps they are Knights of the Round Table!?  Since there are fifty guards, I'd say that at least on of them should be close to the most important item in the museum, since the alarm is off.  ;) I am either getting mean at my old age, or I am just right.  ::)
Title: Re: The Thief
Post by thecow135 on Dec 24th, 2006, 2:34pm
ur just getting mean at your old age =P
Title: Re: The Thief
Post by Iceman on Dec 25th, 2006, 9:19am
Thanks for clearing things up for me, and have a lousy Christmas.
Title: Re: The Thief
Post by thecow135 on Dec 25th, 2006, 12:06pm
lol jkjkjk merry christmas =)
Title: Re: The Thief
Post by Death on Dec 28th, 2006, 6:49am
Also, it seems to me that with a good cover story, even 5 million is a lot of money to share out between 50 guards..... ::)
Title: Re: The Thief
Post by flamingdragon on Dec 31st, 2006, 10:33pm
But of course these are honourable samuari guards.  ::)


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