Brain Teaser....What minor crime has been virtually

[Laura PourMeADrink]

eradicated in the last, say, 25 years ????

[rug]

1. Fortune telling.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

4. is that a crime?

[rug]

5. In NY it is. Max sentence 90 days.

§ 165.35 Fortune telling.
A person is guilty of fortune telling when, for a fee or compensation
which he directly or indirectly solicits or receives, he claims or
pretends to tell fortunes, or holds himself out as being able, by
claimed or pretended use of occult powers, to answer questions or give
advice on personal matters or to exorcise, influence or affect evil
spirits or curses; except that this section does not apply to a person
who engages in the aforedescribed conduct as part of a show or
exhibition solely for the purpose of entertainment or amusement.
Fortune telling is a class B misdemeanor.

It must have been enacted in quaint times.

[Chan790]

9. Such laws are on the books just about everywhere and enforced almost nowhere.

A large part of this is that most people earning a living as a psychic or mystic clearly state in writing and on their signs that their services are for entertainment only.

[rug]

21. Did you know that, in New York, it is illegal to have sex with a dead body or a live animal?

But it is not illegal to have sex with a dead animal.

Go figure.

[Chan790]

27. Now I know what nightmares are made of...

trying to figure out how that set of circumstances came to be.

[nolabear]

2. Phone phreaking?

There were some people with perfect pitch that could make long distance calls for nothing because they could imitate the signals.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

3. HA....No way...that sounds hysterical. NO...but you are getting warm nt

[nomorenomore08]

10. Really? I've never heard of that. But it's fucking brilliant.

[jmowreader]

6. Plugging pay phones

[Paulie]

7. jay walking

[Chan790]

8. Slugging.

Slugging for the unknowing is the act of using washers or foreign coins of the same size and weight to trick the subway turnstiles into thinking a fare token has been used and allowing admission into the subway.

Slugging has been eradicated for a simple reason...the turnstiles no longer accept fare-tokens, having been switched over for the most part to stiles that only have card readers installed.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

14. Thats really a good one too. And, slugs for drink machines - which now

cost more than a dollar - so more of bill thing.

[No Vested Interest]

11. Adultery?

No longer a crime in most places?

[Denninmi]

12. Prank phone calls. Threatening phone calls.

Caller ID put an end to kids doing it for kickd. Threatening phone calls now come only from people who know you and want to blow your fucking head off, not random psychopaths.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

13. Ding Ding Ding....Yes ! Obscene Phone Calls !! I do+

think it's a crying shame that teens can't make crank calls anymore. Geez that was fun

[No Vested Interest]

15. No more "Do you have Prince Albert in a can?" nt

[KamaAina]

17. Or "Is your refrigerator running?"

[Baitball Blogger]

16. Erm, they still do.

My daughter had a sleepover and I caught them making prank calls.

"You do know that your father's name is showing up on the Caller ID, right?"

"So?"

[newcriminal]

18. We use to call someone and ask if Jim was there

wait a couple of hours and call again asking for Jim. We would do that 3 or 4 times in the same day. Then later that night call and say this is Jim, have there been any messages left for me? We thought we were hilarious.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

22. HAHA. It sounds just so simple and fun...it makes me glad

I grew up back then, when stuff like that was funny, vs. today

[Jenoch]

20. See my reply below which also involves telephones.

If someone hits *67 before entering a telephone number the caller ID will come up as 'unknown'.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

24. does that work on cell phones? I would be afraid somehow

someone could figure it out. don't know how...but just could

[Jenoch]

26. It does work on cell phones.

I tried it before I wrote the post. It was on Verizon and it came up as 'restricted'.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

28. Great gonna crank call tonight !

[Jenoch]

30. Be careful not to call the same number

too often. The phone company can still figure out the number from which you are calling, not to mention the NSA.

[JoeyT]

31. If you're willing to spend a little money,

you can also get a spoofing card and have your number show up as whatever you like.

As long as you're not threatening someone, committing fraud, or impersonating law enforcement, it's legal afaik. Of course if you're not allowed to threaten someone, commit fraud, or impersonate law enforcement I'm not sure what the point is either.

[Jenoch]

19. I'm writing this without having first read the entire thread.

I have an answer that I believe to be correct, even if it is not the crime the OP came up with.

The crime that I am sure has been virtually eradicated is breaking into and stealing coins out of pay telephones.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

23. No...but excellent guess. True dat

[Jenoch]

25. Did you read your own thread?

Do you have a link saying crank phone calls are a thing of the past? I am sure there are a lot of crank and threatening phone calls made all the time. People are stupid and don't care or understand about caller ID.

I am also sure there are very few pay phones being broken into for the coins since there are few pay phones. I do not have a link for that.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

29. No link....was an independent thought. Wasn't

trying to be scientific or serious here.

[JoeyT]

32. Making copies of VCR tapes. n/t

[RiffRandell]

33. I loved watching Bart torment Moe on the Simpsons

and love the phony phone calls Richard and Sal make on Howard Stern. I laugh out loud in my car.

[dawg]

34. But, at least for a while, *this* minor crime has gotten much worse.

I don't want to embed the video, because the tag image might be offensive to some, but I highly recommend that those who are not easily offended click the link. This is fascinating stuff.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=dQw4w9WgXcQ

[Laura PourMeADrink]

35. ???? easily offended? guess that's sarcasm, huh. duh nt