6 ms·

I used to participate in a city-wide water pistol assassination tournament. Skipped the hard hat, got white coveralls from Home Depot, pinned my work id to it,

I used to participate in a city-wide water pistol assassination tournament. Skipped the hard hat, got white coveralls from Home Depot, pinned my work id to it, carried a clipboard. Got in everywhere I needed to be, including a heliport and a private boat dock. I forget where I read it, but the phrase "just act like you're supposed to be there" has stuck with me a long time, and paid dividends.

polytely 6y ago
Wow that sounds like a ton of fun, could you go into more detail about how that worked?
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
Gibbon1 6y ago
Brother in law put himself through college working as a plumber at night. Said after that he could go and wasn't afraid to go anywhere.
clairity 6y ago
as a teenager, i remember marveling at a friend who could successfully walk into bars and order drinks. you have to both look the part and play the part (i could do neither). even at places that carded, they wanted to serve you, so the ID had to only provide enough plausible deniability to the bouncer or bartender to credibly claim they were duped into serving you. i'm sure some bartenders secretly got a kick out of the cat and mouse game.
- asdff 6y ago
  In college there was a beer delivery service that would even deliver directly to the dorm if you gave that as your address. If you paid with your debit card over the phone, they wouldn't even card you since the beer was already bought and paid for. One time they did check, and my friend lied and said he didn't have his ID with him. Then the delivery guy who was probably only a couple years older than us just asked to see his actual underage ID to prove he wasn't a cop and handed us the beer anyway.
  - autarch 6y ago
    > Then the delivery guy who was probably only a couple years older than us just asked to see his actual underage ID to prove he wasn't a cop and handed us the beer anyway. The liquor enforcement folks (usually not cops, AFAIK) could easily hire someone under 21 to attempt to purchase alcohol. In fact, I'm pretty sure that in some places they do exactly this.
    - ALittleLight 6y ago
      Yeah, that seems like ensuring you get convicted if the guy was a cop. At least without checking his underage id you could claim you believed him.
      - throwaway0a5e 6y ago
        They just want to fine the business. Arresting delivery drivers for not giving a crap about underage drinking is how you create libertarians and that's the last thing the local police department wants.
        eru 6y ago
        Not sure about that. Law enforcement officers are an interesting bunch with a diverse set of views.
    - SolarNet 6y ago
      They do actually do this. County sherrif mass emails the county employees if they have any teenage children who wanna ride in a police car for a week once a year as the pitch.
    - Enginerrrd 6y ago
      They do get underage folks to try to do either "shoulder tap" operations or direct purchases from vendors. I was asked to do this once as a teenager. I refused, but not before asking a lot of questions about what I'd be doing. I can't say much about the shoulder tap operations, however, I believe there's still a couple of tells for the direct purchase attempts based on the conversations I had: 1. To ensure safety, there will be an adult (undercover cop) nearby. (This could be around the corner, or someplace sneaky, but usually they just pose as another customer.) They probably will maintain pretty close proximity to their underage undercover though. 2. They probably won't give you a fake ID, because it makes it harder to get any sort of definitive enforcement to stick. They aren't trying to catch people that are easily tricked by fake ID's so much as they are trying to catch people that are either knowingly selling booze to underage people or not making any attempt to verify. So if someone presents a fake ID, even one that's sorta but not totally obvious, that's unlikely to be a sting operation. 3. I believe they typically will actually present ID when asked. Again this helps get charges to stick.
- closeparen 6y ago
  >plausible deniability to the bouncer or bartender to credibly claim they were duped into serving you The "serving alcohol to minors" laws are strict liability in some states, for this reason.
  - clairity 6y ago
    yes, that and making IDs much harder to fake credibly.
abeppu 6y ago
What city was this in? Is it in a place where other people have real guns? Is it in a place where the cops have guns? I both want to play and suspect that it would go really really badly.
- fuzxi 6y ago
  For the most part, water pistols look nothing like firearms. I very much doubt that you'd be in danger of being treated as an armed threat when holding a transparent, green, plastic gun that's leaking water.
  - sam_bristow 6y ago
    * assuming you're white
    - NeutronStar 6y ago
      Just don't paint the water pistol black you fool.
  - TrainedMonkey 6y ago
    If someone already suspects you have a firearm they don't need evidence... they need an excuse. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting_of_Trayvon_Martin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting_of_Trayvon_Martin
    - centimeter 6y ago
      Trayvon Martin assaulted Zimmerman before Zimmerman shot him. This event is not germane to the discussion. No one thought Martin had a gun.
      - deleted 6y ago
        [deleted]
      - chordalkeyboard 6y ago
nullsense 6y ago
>I used to participate in a city-wide water pistol assassination tournament TIL that that's a thing!
at_a_remove 6y ago
Yes, getting very large tanks of medical grade nitrous oxide for parties worked like that, for me.
munificent 6y ago
This is in that category of activities that I assume no longer exists in a post 9/11 America.

polytely 6y ago

Wow that sounds like a ton of fun, could you go into more detail about how that worked?

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]

Gibbon1 6y ago

Brother in law put himself through college working as a plumber at night. Said after that he could go and wasn't afraid to go anywhere.

clairity 6y ago

as a teenager, i remember marveling at a friend who could successfully walk into bars and order drinks. you have to both look the part and play the part (i could do neither). even at places that carded, they wanted to serve you, so the ID had to only provide enough plausible deniability to the bouncer or bartender to credibly claim they were duped into serving you. i'm sure some bartenders secretly got a kick out of the cat and mouse game.

asdff 6y ago
In college there was a beer delivery service that would even deliver directly to the dorm if you gave that as your address. If you paid with your debit card over the phone, they wouldn't even card you since the beer was already bought and paid for. One time they did check, and my friend lied and said he didn't have his ID with him. Then the delivery guy who was probably only a couple years older than us just asked to see his actual underage ID to prove he wasn't a cop and handed us the beer anyway.
- autarch 6y ago
  > Then the delivery guy who was probably only a couple years older than us just asked to see his actual underage ID to prove he wasn't a cop and handed us the beer anyway. The liquor enforcement folks (usually not cops, AFAIK) could easily hire someone under 21 to attempt to purchase alcohol. In fact, I'm pretty sure that in some places they do exactly this.
  - ALittleLight 6y ago
    Yeah, that seems like ensuring you get convicted if the guy was a cop. At least without checking his underage id you could claim you believed him.
    - throwaway0a5e 6y ago
      They just want to fine the business. Arresting delivery drivers for not giving a crap about underage drinking is how you create libertarians and that's the last thing the local police department wants.
      - eru 6y ago
        Not sure about that. Law enforcement officers are an interesting bunch with a diverse set of views.
  - SolarNet 6y ago
    They do actually do this. County sherrif mass emails the county employees if they have any teenage children who wanna ride in a police car for a week once a year as the pitch.
  - Enginerrrd 6y ago
    They do get underage folks to try to do either "shoulder tap" operations or direct purchases from vendors. I was asked to do this once as a teenager. I refused, but not before asking a lot of questions about what I'd be doing. I can't say much about the shoulder tap operations, however, I believe there's still a couple of tells for the direct purchase attempts based on the conversations I had: 1. To ensure safety, there will be an adult (undercover cop) nearby. (This could be around the corner, or someplace sneaky, but usually they just pose as another customer.) They probably will maintain pretty close proximity to their underage undercover though. 2. They probably won't give you a fake ID, because it makes it harder to get any sort of definitive enforcement to stick. They aren't trying to catch people that are easily tricked by fake ID's so much as they are trying to catch people that are either knowingly selling booze to underage people or not making any attempt to verify. So if someone presents a fake ID, even one that's sorta but not totally obvious, that's unlikely to be a sting operation. 3. I believe they typically will actually present ID when asked. Again this helps get charges to stick.
closeparen 6y ago
>plausible deniability to the bouncer or bartender to credibly claim they were duped into serving you The "serving alcohol to minors" laws are strict liability in some states, for this reason.
- clairity 6y ago
  yes, that and making IDs much harder to fake credibly.

abeppu 6y ago

What city was this in? Is it in a place where other people have real guns? Is it in a place where the cops have guns? I both want to play and suspect that it would go really really badly.

fuzxi 6y ago
For the most part, water pistols look nothing like firearms. I very much doubt that you'd be in danger of being treated as an armed threat when holding a transparent, green, plastic gun that's leaking water.
- sam_bristow 6y ago
  * assuming you're white
  - NeutronStar 6y ago
    Just don't paint the water pistol black you fool.
- TrainedMonkey 6y ago
  If someone already suspects you have a firearm they don't need evidence... they need an excuse. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting_of_Trayvon_Martin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting_of_Trayvon_Martin
  - centimeter 6y ago
    Trayvon Martin assaulted Zimmerman before Zimmerman shot him. This event is not germane to the discussion. No one thought Martin had a gun.
    - deleted 6y ago
      [deleted]
    - chordalkeyboard 6y ago

nullsense 6y ago

>I used to participate in a city-wide water pistol assassination tournament TIL that that's a thing!

at_a_remove 6y ago

Yes, getting very large tanks of medical grade nitrous oxide for parties worked like that, for me.

munificent 6y ago

This is in that category of activities that I assume no longer exists in a post 9/11 America.