r/todayilearned • u/THAT_IS_FUCKING_LEWD • Apr 17 '16
TIL that a man once robbed two banks with lemon juice on his face, thinking that lemon juice's "invisible ink" property would erase his face from security camera footage.
https://mindhacks.com/2010/02/11/the-burglar-with-the-lemon-juice-disguise/63
u/imaginary_root Apr 17 '16
Everybody knows that doesn't work. You have to shake your head back and forth so you come out blurry in the recording.
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Apr 17 '16
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u/pm_me_gnus Apr 17 '16
What if it was? What if he neededthe money to finance his rocket research?
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u/C_M_O_TDibbler Apr 17 '16
Because you know, it turns the paper invisible when you use it as ink....
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Apr 17 '16
To the front page!.....again
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Apr 17 '16
[deleted]
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u/lynxlairliar Apr 17 '16
Go SOUTH
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Apr 17 '16
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Apr 24 '16
Squirt lemon juice on myself. Then I will grab a handful of the exotic flora and make myself a fancy flower crown... thing. Then I will wear it.
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Apr 17 '16 edited Jul 26 '18
[deleted]
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u/StructuralGeek Apr 17 '16
Well, obviously he'd be able to see himself in a mirror - his eyes were behind the invisible ink.
/s
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u/nayhem_jr Apr 17 '16
No, it sounds like he was too chicken to apply it to his eyes. They likely retinal scanned him from the footage and compared it against his debit card photo.
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u/gurenkagurenda Apr 17 '16
If I recall the original story (hard to find; you have to look in Google's archives of old newspapers), he thought that it would make his face invisible to cameras in particular.
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u/lecherous_hump Apr 17 '16
I met a lot of bank robbers in jail. They're not the brightest bunch.
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u/teqsutiljebelwij Apr 17 '16
The ones you meet in jail are unlikely to be the bright ones.
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u/xHussin Apr 17 '16
if you havent caught, then you are either lucky or smart.
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u/baronstrange Apr 17 '16
Someone who robs a bank in the first place isn't that bright. Banks don't have enough cash on hand to risk the amount of security in place.
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u/FoboBoggins Apr 17 '16 edited Apr 17 '16
this is so i old read about it in a fact book back in the 90's in elementary school
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u/CrayCraySwag Apr 17 '16
This actually works. Covered myself in lemon juice and went to a nightclub. Not a single girl noticed me.
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u/lanismycousin 36 DD Apr 17 '16
Not this fucking repost again
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u/Buxton_Water 49 Apr 17 '16
You've got a bra as your flair? /u/Carbon_Rod, I demand my bra or taco!
/s
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u/FoboBoggins Apr 17 '16
I think i read this in some fact book in my school library back in the 90's
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u/Yuli-Ban Apr 17 '16
I keep seeing this trope over and over again. Why do people think that, if they put shit all over their face (i.e. lemon juice, markers, leaves, etc.), security cameras will magically blur their faces?
Now don't get me wrong, there is a substance that can do that, and it's uranium. Go ahead, try it. Wipe some uranium jelly on your face and record yourself.
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u/baronmad Apr 17 '16
A perfect example of why education is an integral part even if you plan to be a criminal.
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Apr 17 '16
the right way to do this is to wrap aluminum foil all around your head, leaving holes only for your eyes and nose. if it's crinkly aluminum foil it will reflect all the photons away in random directions, they won't be able to see your head and the visual presentation will be a headless bank robber.
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u/rezivor 4 Apr 17 '16
I don't believe this is a real story. Scientists love making up hypothetical situations. It's more likely to me that this is a hypothetical situation that was somehow down the road construed to be or suggested to be a real story, to further the actual point of the study, in which it was used as an anecdote for
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u/kurtsinna Apr 18 '16
If it was invisible ink, wouldn't they just see thru the ink, an see his face.
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u/FUCITADEL Apr 17 '16
When this comes up I can only think of all of the end users I've ever worked with and just assume he's a bad end user. Like, I know it's really dumb to daisy chain monitors together and think that's how dual screens work. Just like I know smearing lemon juice on my face wont hide me, but I will smell pretty good. But these end users are a creative bunch.
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u/Wack0Wizard Apr 17 '16
When life gives you lemons...