Meeting 10:
Laurie Taylor: Hoisting
Task 1: Reading
Read the text and try to predict the content of missing fragments:
`I just couldn't do it. I don't know what it is. It's not embarrassment. No, that's not it. You see, you are putting your head in a noose; that's what it seems to me.' Derek, an armed robber with a long record of bank jobs, was talking about hoisting (shop-lifting). 'No`, I just couldn't do it . I mean just going in there.' He paused to try to find a more exact way of fixing his antipathy. `I tell you what. It's too blatant for my liking.'
It seemed a funny way to put it. Pushing a couple of ties in your pocket in a shop was hardly the last word in extroversion, and even a bit on the discreet side when compared to all that firing of shotguns and vaulting over counters which made up the typical bank raid.
But my ideas of shoplifting were still bound up with teenage memories of 1. _________________. A lot of guilt and not much loot. After a few conversations with professional hoisters, I realised that `blatant' was just about right.
Nobody took a couple of ties: 2. __________________. The first member of the gang would walk in nice and purposefully. Their job was to set up the goods: perhaps put an elastic band round the ends of a few dozens silk scarves; move the valuable pieces of jewellery nearer the edge of the counter; slide the ties on the rack into a compact bunch. Then while somebody else diverts the assistant or provides some sort of masking, the third member lifts the lot.
If the walk to the door is a little long, then there may be someone else to take over for the last stretch. No one is in possession for more than a few seconds, and there is always a couple of spare bodies to 3. ____________ Store detectives who move forward with well-founded suspicions may still find themselves clutching empty air.
Store detectives watch for three main give-aways; any sort of loitering which looks different from the usual hanging around and dithering that characterises the real customer; any covert contact between individuals who've shown no other sign of knowing each other; 4. ________ which might be acting as a distraction.
`There is one other little angle,' said one detective. `I often pop round 5. ________________ that's where you will occasionally find one of them; trying to relax and get themselves in the right mood before staring the next job.
1. nicking packets of chewing gum from the local newsagents
2. they took the whole rack
3 obstruct anyone who seems to be getting too near the carrier.
4. any over-friendliness towards sales staff
5. the back stairs;
Task 2: Comprehension check
What is the technique of hoisting? Complete the 4 stages of this operation:
1. |
2. |
3. |
4.
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Task 3: Comprehension check
Now complete these statements by choosing the answer which you think fits best:
1. The bank robber wouldn't consider shop-lifting because
a. it was beneath his dignity.
b. the penalties were too high.
c. it wasn't challenging enough.
d. the risks were too great.
2. The writer's experience led him to think that most shop-lifters
a. were in their teens.
b. stole modest amounts.
c. used violent methods.
d. stole for excitement.
3. Professional shop-lifters avoid being caught in the act by
a. passing goods from one to another.
b. hiding behind ordinary shoppers.
c. racing for the nearest exit.
d. concealing goods in ordinary bags.
4. Potential shop-lifters can be identified
a. seem unable to decide what to buy.
b. openly signal to apparent strangers
c. are unusually chatty to assistants
d. set off towards emergency exits
Task 4: Focus on register
Look at the following headlines and discuss what crimes they might describe:
A Yard check on `sale' of A-level papers
B Gem vanishes from auction in pink nail polish
C Chips were downfall of computer conman
D Luggage tags invitation to burglars
E Sneeze traps a bungling burglar
Now look at the extracts from the reports which followed the headlines. Can you match the headlines to the reports?
1. late at night in a rowing boat, intending to break into an Islington record warehouse and steal a haul of CDs but climbed into the wrong building.
2. he was caught because he became homesick for Yorkshire and wanted to `taste some real fish and chips'
3. Crooks mingle with trippers at Heathrow and Gatwick and note where they live. They watch travellers fly out then..
4. It appeared that despite tight security the 9.58 carat diamond was stolen during a series of pre-sale examinations in a specially-lighted..
5. About 5,500 pupils who sat A-level French yesterday in London and at school in the South-east may be asked to re-..
Read the full reports below:
1 Vincent Pattison's attempted burglary went badly wrong. He paddled across Regent's Canal late at night in a rowing boat, intending to break into an Islington record warehouse and steal a haul of CDs but climbed into the wrong building, Clerkenwell Court was told yesterday.
A police car crew were alerted by the noise as he tried to sledgehammer his way through a wall to the record firm. The boat sank as he jumped aboard and he had to swim the opposite bank, the court was told.
Finally, Pattison, 23, of Tolmers Square, Euston, hid in a nearby block of flats but was arrested within minutes when he sneezed.
2 A youth of 17 who found a flaw in the Barclays Bank computer system travelled in style on the proceeds of crime, said Mr Simon Evans, prosecuting at the Old Bailey yesterday. He was caught because he became homesick for Yorkshire and wanted to `taste some real fish and chips' Christopher Heard, an unemployed van boy, drove to Thirsk in a Pontiac Firebird which he had bought with 2,500 pounds of his `ill-gotten gains,' said Mr Evans. As he lounged against the car, munching cod and chips, he was arrested by a policeman who suspected he had taken the car unlawfully. Inquiries revealed that Heard, a computer games fanatic, was wanted by police throughout the country for cheque frauds.
3. Holidaymakers passing through airports issue an open invitations to burglars by putting their name and address on luggage, say police. Crooks mingle with trippers at Heathrow and Gatwick and note where they live. They watch travellers fly out and then drive round to these addresses with a van and clean them out. Police believe the luggage tag ruse could be a major reason behind the soaring increase in summer burglaries.
4 A potentially flawless $600, 000 pink diamond was stolen from Sotheby Parke Bernet's New York galleries shortly before auction and replaced by one worth about $ 5,000 and coated with pink nail polish, it was learned yesterday. The `big switch' was being investigated by police and FBI agents. It appeared that despite tight security, the 9,58 carat diamond was stolen during a series of pre-sale examinations in a specially-lighted viewing booth. Carefully screened clients were allowed to examine the diamond and other jewels in a 300-piece jewellery collection that was up for auction. The room was filled with Sotheby's employees and armed guards and monitored by videotape cameras.The theft was discovered after a potential bidder had asked to examine a diamond ring that was being exhibited in the case holding the diamond. As a Sotheby's employee reached for the ring she noticed a flaw in the diamond and that its pink colour appeared to be painted on.
5 Scotland Yard was last night investigating the removal of A-level examination papers from the University of London Exam Centre, and allegations that stolen papers were being sold for 100 pounds each. About 3,500 pupils who sat A-level French yesterday in London and at schools in the South-east may be asked to re-sit the examination with a new paper, and a history A-level test scheduled for next Thursday may be cancelled, depending on the outcome of police investigation. Police were called in by The Standard , the London evening newspaper, after it had been handed the papers by a man who said he worked in the university. The newspaper said its informant, whose name has not been given to the police or university authorities, did not ask for any payment for the documents. He was `seething with indignation' about the lax security which made it so easy for him to remove them.