Department store metal detectors

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QuarterBoreGunner,

Do your tin foil hats come with sensormatic tags in them? I checked all of mine and cannot find a tag. OMG! Is it supposed to have a tag?!?! I think someone forgot to put a tag in my hat...or did they :scrutiny:

-SquirrelNuts
 
My guns have never set of a metal detector in a store.:confused: I used to think they would but it hasn't happened yet.
 
OK. As I am obviously the only person in the world that is setting these tings off..
I'm gonna do an experiment this weekend. I'll go into the stores, with and without gun, knives, etc until I figger out what's causing this.
I'll post back about it next week.
:confused:
 
I gather the pieces of metal in the shoplifting tags are cut to resonate at certain frequencies. Those detectors emit the necessary frequency, and check for changes in the return (think walking around playing a recording of a solid x Hz tone... some things will resonate and you'd be able to hear them).

Metal detectors look for any metal by detecting fluctuations in the magnetic field that are caused by metal moving through an electric field (which the sensors provide).

I don't know of any reason why some arbitrary piece of metal couldn't, through pure unluck, trigger shoplifting sensors.

Are those two descriptions accurate, or would someone care to further clarify what each does?

I took apart a tolltag years ago and I assume that's the basis for the shoplift tags (and HID entry cards), only a bit more complex... there's a shaped metal area to receive a signal, then it goes through some circuitry, then back out to another metal area that I presumed radiates the return signal.

I wonder whether setting off such detectors gives the establishment authority to detain you if you set the detectors off on the way in as well.
 
So far nobody has tried to detain me or search me.
I've been going over the best way to handle the situation if anyone does.

Not that I'm afraid of anything, I'm not breaking any laws. I also don't want to scare the sheeple needlessly either.
 
Do you weld? Or work around heavy electronics?

I know of one guy was worked as a welder most of his life. He set off all manner of sensors, I guess he was permanently charged. :)
 
Do what I do...

I used to go to Borders bookstore and look at books. As you browse, the little security tags will fall out. One time a friend and I removed all of the paper backings (they are just metalized stickers) and left them in the aisles sticky side up. We sat there drinking Starbucks at the front waching people set off the alarm. It was childish and immature, but still very funny... :evil:
 
Chipperman,

Have you purchased a new wallet lately? Wallets are commonly source tagged and even if the tag is deactivated it can work again with enough use of the wallet (constant bending I guess).

Most Target stores will have a hand held detector that looks like a metal detector, but is used to scan for the EAS tags. Might want to ask them to help you find the problem.

HTH
 
my new wallet had a sensor inside

I just bought a new leather wallet and it had a extra anti-theft
sensor inside one of the slots that would set off the alarm at
Barnes & Nobles, when I bought the wallet it didnt set off the
alarm when I left the store I purchased it from? but it did at B&N
bookstore :confused:
 
Casual vs. Businesswear

Good Evening All-

Chipperman, I couldn't necessarily tell from the posts how you were dressed on each occasion, but I've found that clothing stores stick the security tags into the lining of high-quality silk ties.

BTW, I've learned that removing them alters the "drape" of the fabric, so I just ensure that they're thoroughly degaussed before taking them out of the store. There are literally fifty or sixty degaussed tags hanging in my closet....still attached inside the ties years after purchase!

What a pain-in-the-butt. Good luck with your investigation.

~ Blue Jays ~
 
As a new CCW I am worried about this, my research brought me to this thread, was it ever resolved? Will my G17 set off an alarm? Thanks.
 
When the alarm goes off either start running or stop stealing (Just Joking). My CCW has never set one off.
 
I worked loss prevention for many years. Sometimes, if the sun shines in from a particular door, anyone entering would set it off. Sometimes, a rack of clothing with the tags might be a bit too close to the door. And, for whatever reason, the scanner would go off on its own sometimes, or when people walked thru.

It is NOT a metal detector - and does not go off from a gun. Think about it - people have other metal - your watch, kets, belt buckle, etc.
 
A lot can set those off. And sometimes the things ment to set them off are in tricky places, the one in my workboots literaly can't be removed unless I cut it in half because it is molded into the tred.

But I work retail, and annoying as they sometimes are they are a help.
 
WOW, this thread is ancient!!

Well, as the original post was mine, I'll give an update. I never did figure out what was causing it, but it was NOT the gun. It must have been some article of clothing or combination of articles. It drove me nuts, because I could not consistently get it to work or not work no matter what I wore.

It does not happen anymore, so I must not be wearing whatever it was.
 
WOW, this thread is ancient!!
Click to expand...
I hadn't noticed how old the thread was until I saw CGofMP's comment that this was his 100th post. And I glanced over and saw his post count is around 575!

The thread is dead. Long live the thread!

-twency
 
FYI, I was setting off detectors for a month or so, in different stores. One would be OK, another wouldn't. Finally tried putting my arm, head, etc. closer to the detector. My left foot set it off consistently. Having had a problem in a mall when a tag stuck to the bottom of my shoe (thanks to some bored kid, probably!:rolleyes: ), I checked the bottom of my shoe. Nothing there. Put my foot thru, nothing, put my empty shoe thru BEEEEP!. The tag was under the sole of my shoes, which I'd bought... a month or so before.
 
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