'The psychology of leaving a stranger with your valuables' blog discussion

John_Pierpoint

tgroom57 wrote: »

You're too trusting! Trains have cctv, much better to also be in view of one of the cameras

Oh look. the thief is a young male, well that reduces the number of suspects down to about 20 million.
I wonder which of the 10 stations was his destination?
Let me see, would I get a crime number form the local "old bill" or is it "the transport police"?
Where is the guard? How much of a fuss should I make.

After a life-time of commuting (on C2C) the chances of getting something back from "lost property" is about 25% THOUGH if you immediately chase after your loss that chance increases to 75%.
However it is probably now much more difficult to visit the little hut in the shunting yard than it used to be. You most likely cannot get through on the 'phone to the terminus station after (say) 19:00 hours.

Errata wrote: »

It's a matter of degree. Generally people don't leave something valuable like a baby or their wallet with a stranger, but laptops or a carrier bag full of Prinmark rubbish are easily replaced.

The contents of the lap top is more valuable to you (and perhaps the thief) than the hardware - when did I last do a back-up:eek:

geri1965 wrote: »

Ex-housemate of mine asked some people in a club to look after her bag whilst she was dancing, when she came back they had gone with her bag, and her car had also been stolen!

My friend and her husband were at the beach and saw someone run off with someone's bag. Her husband is a very fast runner, so he chased after the thief and got the bag back.

I hope the thief ended up in hospital - unfortunately the criminal law system will try to fine him (You have a better chance of getting blood out of a stone than cash out of a druggie) and the sentence will be xx hours of community, for which he will fail to attend.

Let us face it, the greatest problem is the breakdown of social cohesion and so empathy. This is a massive hidden cost, that does not seem to be factored into "economic" discussions.
In my opinion it results from the increased anonymity and urbanisation of our crowded and mobile lives:

Taking the transport example.
Where would you think your lap top is most at risk:
On a country bus service.
On a London central bus service.
On a suburban train.
On an intercity train.
On the underground.
On a Chicago double deck commuter train.
On a New York subway train
Now substitute "metro train/bus" as an alternative for Chicago and get a Johannesburg perspective.

How about the same journey:
Early in the morning.
Late in the evening.
Between 15:15 and 16:15 on a school day.

Could the outcome for the lap top depend on its
owner's and its fellow travellers' mix of:
Gender.
Visible Wealth.
Age.
Ethnicity.

Personally, if I were the laptop, in some of these circumstances, I would hope that my owner kept me in my bag, keeping the bag inside a "Tesco" carrier bag.
I would want to accompany my owner to the bathroom; especially if I were a slim-line "mother of pearl" white model with a logo of forbidden fruit on my lid.;)

jackyann

I agree with Martin's reasoning, and it is one that is used when teaching children about safety.
In some child safety schemes, children are taught to trust their instincts: if they are lost, they are safer if they pick a person to ask for help, than if they wander about looking vulnerable.

I am often picked out by people to ask for help because I am a cosy-looking middle-aged lady, but I did laugh when someone stopped me to say: you look like a lady who knows where the loos are (of course, I did!)

Reaper

There is a known scam you have to be careful of. A stranger asks you to look after their luggage while they go to the loo. Fair enough but DON'T be tempted to ask them to do the same in return. They have created an unwarranted feeling of trust between you by leaving you with their worthless belongings. Picking somebody at random as Martin has been doing is a safer bet.

tyllwyd

And another idea - slightly more far-fetched but not totally impossible - Martin Lewis gets up, speaks to person sitting next to him and heads off out of the room. Someone sitting nearby watches him go, waits a few minutes, then heads over and says 'Martin Lewis has asked me to come and pick his laptop up for him', takes the laptop and heads for the door. Does the person keeping an eye on the laptop make a huge fuss in front of the whole room, or do they assume it's fine, and let him take it? They've finished their coffee, so they leave to go wherever they are off to. Martin comes back, laptop is gone - even if he is lucky enough to find the person he spoke to, will they remember what the second person looked like?

Balmore2011

I used to commute with a laptop quite a bit. Whenever I took my laptop with me I always used a security cable and attached it to the leg of the table or through the armrest of my seat. The cables cost around a tenner, and whilst they wouldn't stop the most determined of thieves, it would look a tad suspicious if they used wirecutters and brute force to remove the cable! Certainly stops the light-fingered theft.;)

Also I make sure my laptop is always encrypted and whenever I need a comfort-break I lock Windows (press the Windows key and "L").:cool:

jackyann

tyllwyd wrote: »

And as a journalist, I expect that Martin would have a lot of personal details about other people on his laptop - letters with addresses on, phone numbers, maybe senstitive personal information about other people's financial affairs if he's doing research. If the laptop is stolen and someone gets access to that information, does that have any legal implications for him? And if he has left the laptop unattended in a public place, would that make a difference? Even if legally he doesn't have anything to worry about, on a personal and professional level I'd have thought it would be pretty damaging for him.

I would just guess that he wouldn't have that sort of stuff and is just working on articles or similar.
Although I never travelled with it, I used to have a lap-top for work that I used for planning all sorts of stuff, designing leaflets etc. but it never had others' personal info on it.

shadowspy24

Of course people would intervene if they were told to look after the item because if it goes missing and the person returns and says 'where's my laptop?' the person looking after it would have to answer for the laptop and would get partially blamed if it went missing and that's why they are more likely to intervene, to cover their own backside. Whereas if they weren't asked to look after a laptop and it goes missing then it isn't their problem and they can't get blamed if it goes missing so they don't have to care. They might even end up looking like a fool if someone else who takes it is the relative/friend of the owner and they intervene and get made to look the bad guy for no reason.

Tojo_Ralph

"I’m often out and about around the country and am never without my laptop. This means on trains, in coffee shops, or elsewhere; it’s unpacked, set up and out as a portable office. The dilemma is when a ‘comfort break’ is needed – do you pack everything up and shut your laptop down? Or risk leaving it out?"

As someone who regularly sets up office in hotel and airport lounges, I do neither.

When nature calls all I do is unplug the power cable from my laptop if attached (although with a 9 cell battery it rarely is), flip it closed, pop any paperwork on top of it, slip it into my laptop bag and head off with the bag leaving the power cables, pen, reading glasses, my trusty scanner, etc, etc, behind ...... the whole process takes seconds.

As far as I see things, leaving a laptop with a stranger is the solution to a problem that simply does not exist.

meher

Tojo_Ralph wrote: »

leaving a laptop with a stranger is the solution to a problem that simply does not exist.

smart but then if it is a non existent problem why would you

Tojo_Ralph wrote: »

unplug the power cable from my laptop if attached (although with a 9 cell battery it rarely is), flip it closed, pop any paperwork on top of it, slip it into my laptop bag and head off with the bag

Tojo_Ralph

meher wrote: »

Smart but then if it is a non existent problem why would you:p

Not smart, just common sense ..... And if a problem does exist it's one of pure laziness .

To be honest, if I or anyone in my department were to have their laptop stolen after leaving it with a stranger because they or I could not be bothered to take it to the WC, then they or I would quite rightly expect such a cavalier attitude towards the company to be disciplined severely, to the point of being dismissed.

That may sound harsh but any decent employer will have policies and procedures in place that require employees to protect the companies assets, business critical or otherwise and customer data .... Therefore leaving a laptop with a stranger to avoid the inconvenience of having to carry it to the WC would be viewed in a very, very dim light with the guilty party left without a leg to stand on.