DIY Decoy Wallet for Your Neighborhood Muggers

glitter is impossible to get off. you should coat your wallet in glitter in order to catch the criminal.

When I tote my purse through my neighborhood during questionable (and deserted) times of the day, I always make sure my cell phone, debit card, and keys are in my pockets. They can have my cash, and I doubt they're going to hang out and attempt to dig through all the other crap to determine if I'm hiding anything (it's not very tidy).

I've taken the decoy wallet idea a step further -- I carry my old cell phone along with my iPhone. I know it won't work if they jump me and search my pockets, but if I am asked to hand over something and have a choice, voila. In my decoy wallet also keep an expired credit card and a big 'wad' of bills, mostly ones with a ten or twenty. It can all be a hassle in the summer, but worth the sweat.

Forgot to mention my credit cards were replaced with new numbers, so it might not be a useful tip for everyone.

I know plent of people who use a throw away wallet. They keep all cash and id in their front pocket and a wallet with maybe a credit card in back pocket. Easy to cancel a single credit card.

That note is asking for trouble. Miniaturize an exploding paint canister and we'll talk (although a tiny, cell-phone detonated C4 charge would be much more fun).

Targeting hipsters? That makes sense - who else would be earning the big bucks working at the record store or at Gothamist...

This is a joke? Dumb.

Wow, another amazing post by Ms. Carlson. A friend of mine had the same idea about 20 years ago, when we were about 9 years old.

In other words, to borrow the already borrowed phrase that is the headline on that linked post... all of you with your "I'm much more street smart than this guy" warnings... "got punk'd."

YHBT. YHL.

OK, as with most of the posts on Gothamist, it's really important that you read the linked source article if you actually want your comment to be relevant. In this case if you had done that you would have found this: "p.s. some people obviously don't get that this is all a joke and i'm clearly NOT THAT dumb to carry a fake wallet with a note that says "get a job" and "nice try" inside of it..."

See... this is just a joke.

Kind of a weird, not funny joke. Of course, he only claimed it was a joke after one of his commenters helpfully pointed out the obvious: what if the mugger, you know, reads the comments and then stabs you in the head?

A joke that backfired. Now you look like a donkeys ass!

Read the sourced article? Who the hell as the time for that?

You aren't supposed to put your wallet in your back pocket ever. I guess that would go for decoy wallets, too.

what if the mugger gets pissed upon seeing the contents and proceeds to shoot you in the head? that would suck!

Maybe rigging it with some C4 and a trip wire wouldn't be a bad idea. You can blow the mugger's hand clean off.

Luckily for HIM no mugging victim has EVER been stalked and followed, therefore there's no chance the perp will see the idiot make a big show of stooping and pulling a fucking WALLET OUT OF HIS SOCK.

Don't look like a vic and you'll be alright.

Don't look like a dipshit, either.

The Decoy Wallet is one of the oldest tricks in the book. I ALWAYS use it when I need to go into Brooklyn.

Word to the wise; NEVER leave taunting messages inside, you don't know that they won't peak while you still have that knife to your sweaty neck.

Better yet; avoid Brooklyn.

I would have wrote "fooled you dickface, now use all your pent-up furious anger on your next victim!"

It would be better if more law-abiding citizens could pull out a handgun and put a few bullet holes into the scumbags.

totally bro, if he'd had a gun he'd be able to protect himself and everything. RON PAUL 2008 9/11 truth!!!!!@

kill scumbags amirite dude?

this is actually a great way to turn a mugging into an assault with a deadly weapon when the thief hastily opens it up to peek inside while still holding you at knife/gunpoint

Just great. The next time the mugger sees you on the street he will just shoot you and write it off as a bad debt.

I don't think 'get a job' is the right message. I doubt the main reason people pickpocket is because they won't get a job. People pickpocket because they're criminals and have low morals. I think a better message would be one more tailored to driving the mugger to introspectively look at himself, rather than just play a joke on them. That will just make them angry, rather than feeling guilty.

@tingo

-- there is a difference between pickpocket and mugger. there are not the same.