How would you hide a paperclip in your home/apartment to win a contest against an investigator?

Usernameblankface@lemmy.world to Ask Lemmy@lemmy.world – 52 points –

This time, with rules.

The other post got me thinking, here's my version.

For 5 million dollars, the task is the hide a paperclip in your home from a professional investigator. You have 15 minutes to hide it, they have 12 hours and subcontractors to find it. You cannot leave your house or have anything shipped in during your 15 minutes. You have to leave immediately after the 15 minutes is up, and you cannot have the paperclip on your person. Any family members, friends, and all pets will also be removed from the premises, and they aren't allowed to have the paperclip.

You must be able to produce the original paperclip at the end in order to win the challenge. It is marked in some way that you don't know but the investigator can verify. Absolutely no substitutions. You can bend the paperclip, but not cut it.

The paperclip must be inside the building. Not in a shared entryway, not outside the walls in any way. Between the studs of the outside walls of whatever you own or rent as living space are as far as you can go.

Any damage done by the investigator or subcontractors will be repaired back the way it was at no charge, win or lose. They are not allowed to harm the structural integrity of your home/apartment.

92

Straighten it out, then twist it into a spring around a screwdriver. Remove a spring from some component and put the original in my spare parts box.

I like your confidence, but I don't believe that you could do that in 15 minutes.

I put the paperclip in with other paperclips at my office supply warehouse. Do I live in an office supply warehouse? Yes. The investigators will have to rifle though millions of loose paperclips and thousands of boxed paperclips. They have to search my shipping and my receiving areas. As I'm leaving, a woman sees me. She says "can you sell me some office supplies?" . She's the lead investigators. I say no. We make love all night. In the morning the cops come and I escape in one of their uniforms. I tell her to meet me in Mexico but I go to Canada. I don't trust her. Besides, I love the cold. Thirty years later I get a postcard. I have a son. And he's the Chief of Police. This is where the story gets interesting: I tell her to meet me in Paris by the Trocadero. She's been waiting for me all these years. She's never taken another lover. I don't care. I don't show up. I go to Berlin. That's where I shipped the paperclip.

Jokes on them, I keep a bunch of old screws, nails, etc. They come in handy. I'd disturb those containers and mix in part the box of paperclips I already have. Then dump the others around the house randomly.

Then, tilt my fridge and hide the correct one under it, in the little lip formed by where the metal is rolled.

Unless they actually lift the fridge and turn it almost upside down, that damn thing isn't coming out of that lip.

By the time they've gone through all of the fake hiding spots and determined that all of the other clips are the wrong ones, a big portion of the time is gone (and I'm assuming the clip somehow identifiable and that they have a way of doing so, otherwise they're screwed from the beginning)

Nobody with sense is going to turn the fridge over to check under it unless they've exhausted other places.

It's all about wasting their time and making use of human habits, not necessarily a super secret spot.

But, that spot rules out metal detectors, and won't have visible signs of recent movement (because I keep the kitchen absurdly clean, there's no built up dust or grime under it to show the movement). If I hadn't had to turn the fridge on its side to get under they're for some repairs, I wouldn't know the lip existed in the first place. So the chances of any of the investigators and/or subcontractors also knowing that a decades old model of refrigerator happens to have a rolled metal lip is pretty damn low.

They'd do the human thing of looking under it, or even lifting it off the feet and checking under those, but not look further because any of the other places under there would allow a little piece of metal to fall out freely when their first search happened.

But, there's a similar spot on the interior of our washing machine that I found when replacing a switch. Same kind of deal, but the area where the washer is isn't as clean, so it would be obvious enough.

Nice!

And yes, I did say that they have a way of identifying which clip is the one you are supposed to hide.

Straighten it and use a needle to push it into a tube of toothpaste.

That's a good one. Can't metal detect inside a metal tube, not an obvious hiding spot at all

What about a CT/xray though? Id imagine investigator would be motivated enough to use one

What sort of x ray machine could be transported to the site? What size things would fit in a portable x ray machine? How long would each exposure take?

Xrays can be pretty immediately viewable they are used by airport security all the time there are smaller portable imaging machines that are more portable but really if i was investigator id start by having my team removing everything from the place and transporting it to the machine. The one half does the imaging and the other half starts tearing into the residence. Whoever finishes first gets to look through every xray image so that every person has inspected every image at least once

Oh right. It would take some time, but not 12 hours to run everything in the house through the X-ray. Including breaking down larger items for scanning.

Yea and some items could be grouped together like toothbrushes and pens/pencils. It would definitely at least take half the day but if assuming unlimited funds/manpower you could have multiple machines manned by teams

Oh man. Seems there would have to be a limit on manpower and machinery available to the subcontractors

I'd unbend it and slip it into the end of an unterminated Ethernet cable and then terminate it. I've got boxes of cables that may or may not have ends on them, both factory, home made and hybrid (repairs) cables, and it takes no time to terminate it. Slip the unbent clip into the cable, terminate and throw into the middle of the box, maybe even mix up all the cables so they start to nest.

Good luck fuckers.

Same answer as before. Bend it straight and put it in either a mechanical pencil or the ink tube of a pen.

Yep, I think that has a chance. Given how many people came up with the same idea, I wouldn't give it the highest chance of staying hidden for 12 hours.

Unscrew the aerator on the kitchen sink, bend the paperclip so it makes a loop that holds it tight inside of the faucet, and push it up inside the faucet. Then reinstall the aerator.

You can't metal detect it, it won't affect water flow, and it would be simple to retrieve.

I would simply straighten it and slide it into one of the thousands of corrugated Amazon boxes my wife keeps ordering that make up the half ton of cardboard in my basement. Good luck.

A little metal detector work by one of the subcontractors would eliminate all the boxes, and sort through all the staples in said boxes, within 12 hours. I think they'd find it.

I mean are they allowed to destroy my boxes? Because if not, then I have serious doubt. If so, it would take a couple hours to burn them all and find my paperclip.

Yes, they are allowed to destroy the boxes. Each one that gets destroyed or damaged will be replaced afterwards, so that the place is left the same as they found it.

Straighten it, drill a small hole perpendicular to the hinge of one of your doors, put it inside and cover the hole up. If there's enough time, add some paint to it, otherwise just use the sawdust mixed with some glue. The hole is certainly tiny enough to get unnoticed and any metal detector would hopefully pick up the larger metal hinge instead of the paperclip. Finally, if you also paint it up, it would practically be invisible. Just make sure you use a paint that doesn't smell too strongly.

Ooh, you wouldn't even need to do that... knock the pins out of your door hinges, remove the door, put the unbent paperclip INSIDE one of the pins and re-install.

Straighten it then install it under the rim strip of a bike wheel. Reinstall the tire and leave it alone. It would be invisible to metal detector and there's a good chance none of the investigators know how to change a bike tire. I'd take my tire levers with me

Any family members and all pets will also be removed from the premises, and they aren't allowed to have the paperclip.

Get someone who isn't a family member to shove it up their ass and stay in the house

Haha! Nice workaround.

I guess they'll just have to do exploratory surgery and put your friend back together the way they were before they leave.

Remove the wall plug, straighten the paper clip and insert it into the cable in between the wires, reinstall the wall plug.

I would straighten it out and then sew it into a pair of jeans near the fly. They would need to inspect every fly seam in every pair of jeans to find it.

Drill a tiny hole behind the strike plate of a door frame, stick the straightened paperclip in, patch the tiny hole, reinstall the strike plate.

By the time they consider looking there, the patching compound should be dried and not easily distinguishable from the painted wood, except on very close inspection.

I have several boxes of paperclips at home, spread them out and as decoys, and put the real paper clip inside a mechanical pencil after straightening it out and put the pencil into a box of many different pencils, make a tiny mark with a file and mix it up.

The paperclip boxes will distract them for a few hours, but logic will dictate that mixing the paper clip with other's is dumb as I need to be able to retrieve it with in a resonable timeframe.

I put it through a laminator and cut it into a business card size. I then go up into the attic and press it down into the uninsulated interior wall between my office and son's room. The size of the laminate should allow me to flex it slightly and pin it between the walls with tension. If they try to remove the wall it will fall into the crawlspace below the house and be caught by a pad of insulation.

Alternatively, tuck it into the barrel of the washing machine in said laminate. It won't rattle and without fully disassembling it you won't be able to retrieve it.

I have a loophole--or more accurately, an ash vent in my fireplace. It leads to a spot in my basement that is completely inaccessible without compromising the structural integrity of my home (it's a block wall that holds up the fireplace and some key joists).

When I need to return the paperclip, I'd take a sledgehammer to the block wall and get it that way (I'd probably attach it to something easy to find before dropping it). The $5Mil will more than cover repairs, even if my house collapses.

If that isn't legal, I'd just go down to my basement and tuck it between a floor joist and the floor above, plus hide a bunch of decoys in my basement to hide tracks. They would only find it by pulling up every layer of floor in the entire house, which would take much longer than 12 hours.

The rules have nothing about you destroying your own house to get the paperclip back. I think this works!

I'm not sure it's possible. A team of people with the singular goal of finding something with no regard litterally anything else could strip a home in 12 hours.

That said, I would drill a small hole on the backside of one of the roof joists in the far corner of the attic, put the paperclip in that and then use wood putty to seal the hole.

I'm not sure it's possible.

The time I got caught growing weed, several officers "searched" my home and they literally just didn't see a massive jar of crushed weed I had on my kitchen table.

Like in plain sight, and some 70g of cannabis, in a large glass jar. And those cops did not ignore it on purpose.

It's a different situation but still

They were so hyper focused on looking for hiding spots they missed the obvious lul

I bribe one of the underpaid contractors to hang onto it. Or i bribe the investigator to not find it. You didnt say he would get paid. I leave out an assortment of good foods/snacks and the remotes for the tv/controller so they can enjoy the day off. I then check in for my own nice spa day for my own day off

An unpaid investor would be barely motivated to search anything. Of course they're paid.

Even a well paid crew member would do a lot for a million dollars or so. Might need to go higher if they know how much you stand to win.

Straighten the paper clip and slip it inside the binding of an old copy of Britannica I have. I got it second hand from a public library, so it has quite a few of the old style anti-theft tags hidden throughout; it also contains quite a few paper clips of many colors I once used as bookmarks.

I use the remaining time to clean the house, making sure to go into the bathroom more than once, moving the toilet tank lid and opening and shutting all of the cabinets every time. If I'm very lucky I'll be just shutting the medicine cabinet audibly when the investigators walk in. (For those not familiar, many houses built in the mid 20th century in the US had slots in the back of the medicine cabinet where you were supposed to dispose of used razor blades.)

I think they'd tear the entire house apart trying to find that thing. There's a small chance someone would notice paper clips on the Brittanica and start checking for more. Whether they find it depends on whether they have access to x rays or a metal detector.

I have no doubt that they would, but that's not one of the variables I'm trying to control. As far as I can tell, time and volume are the only two things that I can play with. They have a 30-minute timer, and cannot take the load-bearing walls down. That means there's a volume constraint, no matter how many people they have available they can only fit so many in one space. That limits the amount of time they have to actually search, assuming they empty the dwelling. If they don't empty the dwelling, it sharply limits the number of people they can have searching at any one time. Heavy equipment like an x-ray machine also limits that volume.

With respect to the Britannica, if you're familiar with them you know they are massive and this one just happened to be my primary research source in high school. I cannot understate the number of flags and paper clips simply destroying those bindings right now. If someone does notice it, I'm relying on running out the clock with them checking every one they see first.

They'd have to stay within the home, but they do have 12 hours to check through things. So, they cannot empty the things to the outside, they have to sort through things inside. I guess that eliminates the xray idea.

But a metal detector and 12 hours time would put the odds in their favor.

Un-bend the paperclip and insert it lengthwise into a paper air filter, used or unused.

On top of the front door door frame. Its too obvious

Haha, worth a shot, I guess!

But I think within 12 hours they'd start ripping all the trim/drywall and it would be found.

Hide it in the insulation, then hide a bunch of dummy paperclips all through the house.

Yeah right, I know exactly what you're trying to do Paperclip boy! I'm NEVER telling you where I hid my Paperclip! Just give it up already!

Even if it's marked, I think putting in a container full of other paperclips would still work if it's a big enough thing that even if they started with it, it would take more than 12 hours to find.

Yeah, if you already own enough paper clips, it could come down to chance. They might possibly pick up the special paperclip, but they still have to verify them one at a time, so the odds are in your favor.

Grab a necklace made with wires and weave it through the metal. Put the necklace in with a bunch of other necklaces. Then take other paperclips and hide then around the place until time is up.

I would get a giant pile of all kinds of paper clips, and put it in the center of the room. Then sprinkle several thousand clips all over the house. The clip in question would be one of the many.

How would you find it at the end? One of the rules is you have to be able to produce it if they don't find it.

Perhaps memorize the location, or keep a piece of paper on your person (or a note on your phone) that tells you where it is?

Eh, the crew would undoubtedly gather up all the paperclips they find and one would start verifying the clips one by one while the others search. If you win, the piles would be smaller but you would still have to search through the piles they didn't get to in order to prove your victory.

Exactly. And while they waste their time searching the obvious ones, I'd have it hidden in one of hundreds of much less obvious places. Of course I could identify it. I never said the key clip would be in the thousands of obvious ones.

Firstly, if you can, get a bunch of boxes of paperclips and put them in plausible hiding places. Depending on how they are marked, it might buy you some time.

Some ideas:

  • Lock it in a safe or strongbox only you know the code for.
  • Unscrew a plug socket or light switch from the wall, put it in the cavity, and then reattach it.
  • Get a photograph with a metal frame and slip the paperclip behind the picture itself.
  • Find some other metalic easy to dismantle thing and hide the clip inside.
  • Throw it down a drain or other hole, you can use a magnet on a string to retrieve it.

I assume the investigator will systematically remove everything and sweep it with a metal detector. Hopefully these hiding places won't be as obvious.

I figured the investigator would start non-destructively, just moving things around, pickup up loose objects, etc.

But who knows, maybe they go full destruction mode immediately.

They do have a way of verifying, and it would buy some time as they pick up every single paperclip they find and verify it somehow.

Put in into the wall using an existing screw hole for a photo then rehang the photo. Take a hammer to the wall later to get it back.

Hmm. I think tearing down all the drywall would be a logical step for the investigator, given that they have extra help. I think they would find it within 12 hours.

Time becomes the constraint, they can't just start smashing walls, that makes everything around harder to search. With something the size of a paperclip they could easily miss it if they just hammer a hole between each stud.

They would have to check the entire room as best they can before they start smashing things and sorting through the rubble... Hmm yes, 12 hours is not too long to give them.

Maybe but there are a lot of wires and pipes running through the walls too. They would spend longer rebuilding the house if they broke every wall and took apart every appliance

They have unlimited time and money on to put the place back together. The only incentive they have to avoid tearing things apart is that finding the paperclip early in the day makes a short day for them, and bragging rights.

Pop up some of the quarter round behind one of the toilets and drop the paperclip between the flooring and the studs then a quick tap down of the quarter round. With the extra time I might quickly paint a few spots in other rooms to distract them.