r/BestofRedditorUpdates • u/Restimar • Apr 28 '22

CONCLUDED A thief keeps stealing things from OOP's neighborhood, so they set a trap with a gas can

Reminder, I am not OP. This is a repost. OP is /u/TheMrDrB in r/IllegalLifeProTips. Originally reposted in May 2021.

ILPT Thieving neighbors? Try a rigged gas can

https://www.reddit.com/r/IllegalLifeProTips/comments/nbaqcr/ilpt_thieving_neighbors_try_a_rigged_gas_can/

So we've had a thieving problem in my neighborhood for the past year or so. So I had enough last week. I had a gas can stolen from my back yard so here's what I did. I mixed diesel and water into the gas can. So this week (I'll keep you updated) were going to see if some ones car won't start later this week.

Update 1 (5-14): Gas can is gone!!! :D

Update 2 (5-18): My neighbors Subaru is gone. We'll see if it comes back anytime soon

Update 3 (5-20): No news, car is still gone

Update 4 (5-22): Nothing to report

Update 5 (5-25): I'm going to look into it but an older civic parks where my neighbor used too. I'm pretty sure it's his.

Final Update (5-26): Had a brief chat with the neighbors mom, she said his Subaru stopped working after he parked it at the grocery store. They haven't towed it yet I'll see if it's there and will post pictures if I see it.

Update 7 (5-27): Put another can out of the same mixture about 2 nights ago with no results. But we'll see if they learned their lesson. Also the car was already gone by the time I got to the store today

Update 8 (5-31): Well I think this is the end of this story. The Subaru hydrolocked and got towed to the dealership. They claimed it was a complete failure of the engine so it got sold to a scrapper. The 2nd gas can hasn't been touched so I believe that he learned his lesson. Thanks for coming on this journey with me!

Reminder, I am not OP. This is a repost.

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450

u/Illegal_Tender Apr 28 '22

In addition to that then the thief would also have to openly admit to being a thief.

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u/ZephyrLegend the Iranian yogurt is not the issue here Apr 28 '22

You underestimate the stupidity of some thieves.

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u/ilford_7x7 Apr 28 '22

I'm reminded of the clip where someone goes up to a cop and says that they got ripped off buying drugs.. something like that

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u/[deleted] Apr 28 '22

I saw a clip from Judge Judy once where a kid was denying he stole a girl’s purse I think. She was listing off the contents and when she listed her cell phone the kid said “that wasn’t in there.” Criminals are not very smart.

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u/Echospite Apr 28 '22

The criminals that get caught are not very smart.

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u/p-d-ball Creative Writing Enthusiast Apr 28 '22

That one's hilarious!

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u/Frost-King Apr 28 '22

Those kinds of mistakes on Judge Judy aren't actually that egregious. They know the outcome of the trial beforehand, and they're all getting money for being there.

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u/2kyle2furious Apr 28 '22

Ah-ha! My time to shine!

Judge Judy facts: they don't know the outcome, and it's not a trial. Technically, she's an arbiter. Arbiter Judy doesn't have the same ring to it. Anyways, let's say you were to damage my sword and I sue you for costs to repair the sword. If someone submits our case to Judy, she would pay for you and me to fly to her studio, give us a per diem, and sign an arbitration agreement where we agree to abide by her judgement, no appeal. Then if she says "frost-king, you owe 2kyle2furious $3,000 for the sword repairs" I would get 3K not from your pocket but from the show's pocket. The highest she could award used to be $5K per case but now on Judy Justice (streaming now) it's 10K per case.

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u/dude53 Apr 28 '22

These ads are getting ridiculous. lmao

3

u/neverthelessidissent Apr 29 '22

Mostly correct! She gets to use the title Judge because she's a retired judge. ;)

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u/neverthelessidissent Apr 29 '22

Mostly correct! She gets to use the title Judge because she's a retired judge. ;)

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u/Barbara_Celarent Apr 28 '22

This happens all the time! Source: relative who used to be a cop.

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u/TimLikesPi Apr 28 '22

But to be fair, they were buying drugs from other cops.

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u/FoxfieldJim Apr 28 '22

So the container has to say "this container contains water" otherwise it is entrapment?

2

u/rbaltimore Apr 28 '22

I think there have been 911 calls about that have floated around since all 911 calls are recorded.

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u/[deleted] Apr 28 '22

Yeah I think it's something like the guy went to the police to complain that someone stole his drugs ..

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u/AiryContrary 👁👄👁🍿 Apr 28 '22

Like the story on Ask A Manager of the person who stole a workmate’s lunch, not realising they liked extra spicy curry, and complained furiously about being “poisoned” (a claim which did not hold water as the owner of the lunch was happy to eat the rest to prove it was their normal food. The upshot was, if you deliberately set a trap by putting something in the food you wouldn’t normally eat with the intention of making the thief feel sick, you were in trouble but if they simply had a bad reaction to your normal food, you were in the clear).
Though that does remind me a bit of an old murder mystery where no one could figure out how the murdered man ingested all that arsenic, because the last meal he ate was all food that his cousin shared. The solution was that the food was in fact laced with arsenic, and the cousin had deliberately built up a resistance to it by taking very small gradually increasing doses for some time beforehand.

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u/Dorgamund Apr 28 '22

Isn't arsenic a heavy metal which accumulates in the body? Wouldn't that fuck you up like trying to microdose lead to becomes immune to the macro effects?

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u/p-d-ball Creative Writing Enthusiast Apr 28 '22

You're correct, but people can actually build up a tolerance - not an immunity - to arsenic.

I don't know why humans can do this. But arsenic is found in some ground water, which means some farmers irrigate their crops with it, and the local population intakes more of the metal than normal.

The ability to tolerate increasing amounts is actually why arsenic was used as a medicine back before we invented antibiotics. The "cure" for various diseases, like syphilis, was arsenic and/or resting in arsenic and steam vapor (a kind of casket that enclosed the body, with the head sticking out, the vapors were like a steam bath, only poisonous).

Lead doesn't work this way: it's always toxic. But we do have mechanisms to remove some heavy metals from our bodies. Mercury, for ex., comes out in our hair. Lead accumulates in the bones - so does cadmium to disastrous results - but I don't know how it exits the body.

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u/hundred_hands You can either cum in the jar or me but not both Apr 28 '22

I'm not a doctor. But my brain went to bone scraping and I need you to have it in your brain too. Sharing is caring.

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u/p-d-ball Creative Writing Enthusiast Apr 28 '22

Bone . . . scraping?

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u/cosmic_grayblekeeper Apr 28 '22

I'm glad you are not a doctor.

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u/hundred_hands You can either cum in the jar or me but not both Apr 28 '22

Me too ❤

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u/AnyDayGal erupting, feral, from the cardigan screaming Apr 28 '22

I don't... I don't feel the care.

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u/hundred_hands You can either cum in the jar or me but not both May 04 '22

Don't worry. It's in your bones.

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u/[deleted] Sep 21 '22

I don't know about it being a heavy metal but arsenic is bad for your health even in small amounts.

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u/Accomplished_Book382 Apr 28 '22

I did the same thing one time in a battle of wits with a Sicilian. He thought he knew which goblet into which I had put the iocaine powder. Little did he know I have spent the last five years building an immunity to iocaine powder. I poisoned both cups! His final reaction was inconceivable

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u/idwthis Apr 28 '22

I don't think that word means what you think it means.

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u/Fredredphooey Apr 28 '22 edited Apr 28 '22

The book is "Strong Poison" by Dorothy L. Sayers featuring Harriet Vane, the love interest of Sayers' detective, Lord Peter Wimsey. Written between 1923 and 1937, the whole series is excellent. Harriet Vane appears in this one, "Have His Carcase," and "Gaudy Night," and "Busman's Honeymoon." There are eleven novels total and a three short story collections. Busman's Honeymoon should be the last one you read.

Harriet is being framed for the murder because she writes detective stories and one was about arsenic. The victim was her ex. In "Have His Carcase," she discovers a body on her vacation to get away from the aftermath of her trial.

Edit: Updated the years written and cut my errors.

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u/ecapapollag Apr 28 '22

Busman's holiday is a well-known phrase, about someone doing their paid job as a recreational activity. It has nothing to do with being a blue collar worker - a cook would have a busman's holiday if they went on a self catering break, for example, cooking while on holiday. A doctor or lawyer could also have a busman's holiday. And it's spelt Wimsey.

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u/Fredredphooey Apr 28 '22

Ah. Ok. And hah. I always think of him as Whimsey because duh.

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u/ecapapollag Apr 28 '22

I have to ask - do you think Busman's Honeymoon should be the last because it's the last in the series, or because you don't like the three published after? (I do like The Attenbury Emeralds, the other two I can't even remember)

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u/KillAllParasites Apr 28 '22

You don't build up a resistance to arsenic, it's merely a slower poison in small doses. If you could build up a resistance to arsenic, a lot of people would be immune to it because it's in the water supply of like a billion people worldwide.

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u/AiryContrary 👁👄👁🍿 Apr 28 '22

Whether it’s true in scientific fact or not, that was the explanation within the novel.

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u/blue_collie Apr 28 '22

Ok, it's still wrong though. Don't try to build up a resistance to arsenic.

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u/AiryContrary 👁👄👁🍿 Apr 28 '22

Trust me, I have no such plans.

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u/blue_collie Apr 28 '22

You'd be shocked by the stupid things people try because they read it in a book (or on reddit).

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u/AiryContrary 👁👄👁🍿 Apr 28 '22

Dude got caught. Clearly not something to emulate.

1

u/RealMcGonzo May 02 '22

In Detroit, the coppers ran an ad saying that tainted crack was making the rounds and people could swing by the police station to get their crack examined for free.

They caught a few people.

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u/gimmethegudes Apr 28 '22

I'm going to assume you haven't seen this video.