Read Online The Criminal Alphabet by Noel "Razor" Smith - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Noel "Razor" Smith
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is imminent.
See Across the Pavement
HOISTING BAG
----
A hoisting bag is
usually a large laundry bag lined with tinfoil. The foil allows the hoister to walk
out of any shop with a bag full of stolen items still with their security tags on
and not set off the sensor alarms at the doors – essential for the modern hoister,
who relies on speed and surprise rather than secrecy and guile. The hoisting bag
will allow the villain that extra precious couple of minutes to get to the getaway
vehicle before all the hue and cry.
See Hoisting , Space Blanket
KEEPING DOG
----
Keeping dog is to be the
lookout, or warning man, when a crime is being committed (doggy’s eye = spy). If
someone were to ask you to keep dog, they wouldn’t be inviting you to become the
owner of a canine but rather to keep an eye out while something is going down. In
public schools the person keeping dog would shout a warning of ‘
Cave
!’ if
someone in authority were to approach, Latin for ‘beware’. The more common criminal
warning cry is ‘On top!’, meaning that someone is close.
See Have It Up!
NOSTRILS
----
‘Taking nostrils for a
walk’ is a phrase meaning to be out and about with a sawn-off double-barrelled
shotgun for the purposes of crime, ‘nostrils’ being slang for this type of gun, for
obvious reasons.
RICE SHOTS
----
Rice shots are sometimes
used by professional armed robbers in order to frighten their victims into
compliance, but also as a non-lethal alternative to a gunshot. The robber will take
a live shotgun cartridge, saw the top off the plastic cartridge case then empty out
the lead shot. They will replace it with grains of uncooked rice and stick the top
of the cartridge back on with superglue. If it’s a double-barrelled shotgun, the
robber will have the rice cartridge in one barrel and a live lead-shot cartridge in
the other. The gun will still fire the rice cartridge, however, as the detonating
cap in the base of the cartridge remains untouched, and it will sound just like a
real shot. During the course of a robbery, the robber knows that he can now let off
a shot without the danger of killing or seriously injuring anyone. Some robbers will
fire a rice shot into the ceiling of the target premises in order to grab attention
and frighten people into doing what they say. Hard, uncooked rice hitting a ceiling
sounds very much like lead shot. Some robbers will only use the rice cartridge if
someone ‘has a go’. The force of the rice and cartridge wadding will seriously sting
and bruise anybody it’s fired at and will definitely discourage any
have-a-go-hero.
SMOTHER
----
In general criminal terms, a smother is a mask, or disguise. In prison parlance, to ‘create
a smother’ is to distract the screws while something illegal is carried out –
usually a drug deal or an act of violence. There is a form of dipping that is known as the smother game because it is all about using various items to mask the act of pickpocketing. But,
on the whole, to smother up is to disguise yourself for the purpose of crime.
See Dipper , Stiks/Stiks man , Whizzer/Whiz mob
SPACE BLANKET
----
A space blanket is a
lined piece of tinfoil which, when wrapped around the head and body, will allow the
wearer to walk right through any sensor alarms without setting them off. They are
particularly loved by commercial burglars, especially those who target social and
working men’s clubs, which is where you often find such alarms. The sensors seek
heat or movement, but the foil fools them, enabling the foil-clad thieves to empty
tills and fruit machines.
See Burglary , Hoisting Bag
THE STRIP, SCAFF, SLIDE HAMMER AND
HOT-WIRING
----
Some professional car thieves use a strip , a length of flat, flexible metal (usually aluminium)
that can be forced through a small gap between the window and the frame and used to
hook the handle up from the inside. Once inside the
See Across the Pavement
HOISTING BAG
----
A hoisting bag is
usually a large laundry bag lined with tinfoil. The foil allows the hoister to walk
out of any shop with a bag full of stolen items still with their security tags on
and not set off the sensor alarms at the doors – essential for the modern hoister,
who relies on speed and surprise rather than secrecy and guile. The hoisting bag
will allow the villain that extra precious couple of minutes to get to the getaway
vehicle before all the hue and cry.
See Hoisting , Space Blanket
KEEPING DOG
----
Keeping dog is to be the
lookout, or warning man, when a crime is being committed (doggy’s eye = spy). If
someone were to ask you to keep dog, they wouldn’t be inviting you to become the
owner of a canine but rather to keep an eye out while something is going down. In
public schools the person keeping dog would shout a warning of ‘
Cave
!’ if
someone in authority were to approach, Latin for ‘beware’. The more common criminal
warning cry is ‘On top!’, meaning that someone is close.
See Have It Up!
NOSTRILS
----
‘Taking nostrils for a
walk’ is a phrase meaning to be out and about with a sawn-off double-barrelled
shotgun for the purposes of crime, ‘nostrils’ being slang for this type of gun, for
obvious reasons.
RICE SHOTS
----
Rice shots are sometimes
used by professional armed robbers in order to frighten their victims into
compliance, but also as a non-lethal alternative to a gunshot. The robber will take
a live shotgun cartridge, saw the top off the plastic cartridge case then empty out
the lead shot. They will replace it with grains of uncooked rice and stick the top
of the cartridge back on with superglue. If it’s a double-barrelled shotgun, the
robber will have the rice cartridge in one barrel and a live lead-shot cartridge in
the other. The gun will still fire the rice cartridge, however, as the detonating
cap in the base of the cartridge remains untouched, and it will sound just like a
real shot. During the course of a robbery, the robber knows that he can now let off
a shot without the danger of killing or seriously injuring anyone. Some robbers will
fire a rice shot into the ceiling of the target premises in order to grab attention
and frighten people into doing what they say. Hard, uncooked rice hitting a ceiling
sounds very much like lead shot. Some robbers will only use the rice cartridge if
someone ‘has a go’. The force of the rice and cartridge wadding will seriously sting
and bruise anybody it’s fired at and will definitely discourage any
have-a-go-hero.
SMOTHER
----
In general criminal terms, a smother is a mask, or disguise. In prison parlance, to ‘create
a smother’ is to distract the screws while something illegal is carried out –
usually a drug deal or an act of violence. There is a form of dipping that is known as the smother game because it is all about using various items to mask the act of pickpocketing. But,
on the whole, to smother up is to disguise yourself for the purpose of crime.
See Dipper , Stiks/Stiks man , Whizzer/Whiz mob
SPACE BLANKET
----
A space blanket is a
lined piece of tinfoil which, when wrapped around the head and body, will allow the
wearer to walk right through any sensor alarms without setting them off. They are
particularly loved by commercial burglars, especially those who target social and
working men’s clubs, which is where you often find such alarms. The sensors seek
heat or movement, but the foil fools them, enabling the foil-clad thieves to empty
tills and fruit machines.
See Burglary , Hoisting Bag
THE STRIP, SCAFF, SLIDE HAMMER AND
HOT-WIRING
----
Some professional car thieves use a strip , a length of flat, flexible metal (usually aluminium)
that can be forced through a small gap between the window and the frame and used to
hook the handle up from the inside. Once inside the
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