Comments on: The Silver Thief

The Silver Thief

reenum — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 09:20:24 -0800

The Silver Thief: The Story of a Burglar Who Was Too Good for His Own Good: The story of Blane Nordahl, an eminent silver thief in New Jersey and the hunt for him.

By: mr_crash_davis mark II: Jazz Odyssey

mr_crash_davis mark II: Jazz Odyssey — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 09:40:12 -0800

I tried to read it, but white text on a black background hurts my eyes.

By: reenum

reenum — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 09:47:46 -0800

Sorry dude. I would have linked to the original, but it's behind the New Yorker paywall.

By: Inspector.Gadget

Inspector.Gadget — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 09:52:42 -0800

http://pastebin.ca/1723942 Black text on a white background, resize your browser window to get the desired column shape.

By: mr_crash_davis mark II: Jazz Odyssey

mr_crash_davis mark II: Jazz Odyssey — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 09:58:19 -0800

Thanks, Inspector.Gadget. Should've thought of that myself. Must be time to go home and have a nap.

By: jabberjaw

jabberjaw — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 10:10:44 -0800

Fascinating fellow. I hope I don't smell a movie deal out of this. The police inventoried Nordahl's belongings in his vehicle and in his motel room, and found, among other items, nationwide motel directories, a video titled "How to Create a New Birth Certificate," a rubber stamp that read "original document," and a book called "How to Launder Money." He had been travelling with two cats, one white and one black, named Romeo and Juliet; a series of receipts from various animal clinics suggested that he was a devoted pet owner. Not surprisingly, he had no sterling silver and no piles of cash. A cat burglar with cats. I like that. And who knew of the burgeoning burglar self-help industry? "I said, 'Blane, if you ever want to use your knowledge in a positive way, I'd work with you.' I said, 'You could work in the insurance industry in the area of silver. You could work with alarm systems. If you want to team up, go into a business, we could turn this into a crime-prevention program.' " "What did he say?" I asked. "He said, 'I don't think so.'" Respect.

By: palindromic

palindromic — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 10:29:30 -0800

So this is Mr. Nordahl. And here I was picturing this. A lesson in questioning assumptions!

By: Drasher

Drasher — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 10:45:54 -0800

Very cool story. Almost makes me want to make a career change, but I'm a little old for that. It could be a movie... but we would need some of the "old-style" Hollywood actors to do it. (Cary Grant, Robert Mitchum, ok, maybe De Niro))

By: Meatbomb

Meatbomb — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 10:55:50 -0800

Great read, thank you for the link.

By: typewriter

typewriter — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 11:07:23 -0800

Fascinating.

By: exhilaration

exhilaration — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 11:11:48 -0800

Awesome read!

By: jckll

jckll — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 11:24:52 -0800

Who doesn't love a good cat burgular story...nice read!

By: Antidisestablishmentarianist

Antidisestablishmentarianist — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 11:34:32 -0800

Not surprising, but there is a Law and Order adaptation of this. I am sad to report that I have seen it. Great article.

By: jdfan

jdfan — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 11:43:26 -0800

He got eight years, btw.

By: Xurando

Xurando — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 11:47:35 -0800

There's this too.

By: jdfan

jdfan — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 11:47:59 -0800

And here's something called Masterminds about him.

By: PareidoliaticBoy

PareidoliaticBoy — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 12:22:27 -0800

I tried to read it, but white text on a black background hurts my eyes. posted by mr_crash_davis mark II: Jazz Odyssey at 9:40 AM on December 22 [+] [!] Readability - An Arc90 Lab Experiment READABILITY is a simple tool that makes reading on the Web more enjoyable by removing the clutter around what you're reading. Fascinating read, reenum. Thanks.

By: kylej

kylej — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 12:55:47 -0800

Really cool, thanks!

By: milarepa

milarepa — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 13:41:33 -0800

And here I was picturing this. That's exactly what I pictured the whole time.

By: bearwife

bearwife — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 15:30:30 -0800

Well, the story makes you wonder if he was transformed into some short but gorgeous hunk: Taking crime seriously had a bracing effect on Nordahl. He stopped using drugs and gave up alcohol, cigarettes, and even caffeine. He tried to eat well, and he worked out constantly. Only five feet four inches tall, he built himself a gymnast's body: strong shoulders, skinny hips, muscular legs. I enjoyed the tale, though. Wonder when his next release date is.

By: Mitrovarr

Mitrovarr — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 17:23:51 -0800

The burglar almost sounds like a better person than the cops following him. "I steal the trophy silver of the filthy rich" vs. 'Give us your boyfriend or we'll arrest you and leave your child to the wolves' and 'I'm going to give his picture to the Russian Mafia so they murder him'. That second one, in particular, is pretty damn telling.

By: mendel

mendel — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 20:54:12 -0800

Mitrovarr: Sure, but also "I keep a trail of women in line by keeping them in heroin at the Super 8", not so much.

By: Mitrovarr

Mitrovarr — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 20:59:12 -0800

It's not exactly winning behavior, but it doesn't top proxy murder by russian mobster.

By: dealing away

dealing away — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 00:03:44 -0800

Great read indeed. Thx for sharing.

By: Meatbomb

Meatbomb — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 00:37:32 -0800

"I keep a trail of women in line by keeping them in heroin at the Super 8" Those women saw this aspect of the relationship as a valuable perk.

By: mccarty.tim

mccarty.tim — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 06:28:35 -0800

These days, I don't get why people still buy precious metals. They're shiny and used in engineering, yes, but their value can fluctuate, especially against inflation. Right now, we essentially have a government bond that is locked to inflation, and sold at sub-blue chip prices. I'm talking about the Forever Stamp. The price of stamps always goes up, and they generally rise in line with inflation. Further, it's legal to buy as many stamps as you want and resell them later. And you're not really stealing from the post office, as if the revenue gives them savings, they can invest it (perhaps in Forever Stamps?) and use it to pay for future shipping when you use or sell your stamps. And if they do lose money, they'll rise the price of stamps to make ends meet! They make Glenn Beck's gold racket seem downright silly. If I were more ambitious, I'd start getting in on this scam, and start selling Forever Stamp Futures, and derivatives of those futures, and then bonds of those futures, and then start financing Icelandic towns. I hear the interest rate at the Fed is quite low, so perhaps I should.

By: ob

ob — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 07:08:34 -0800

That was great.

By: viborg

viborg — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 20:23:20 -0800

I've been meaning to do this since reddit jumped the shark, but a detail in this story inspired me to finally register on MetaFilter. I've been a lurker here for a long time but was under the impression paying through PayPal would be a lot more difficult than it actually was. On to the detail: this man's father has also had a recent FPP devoted to him.

By: Mitheral

Mitheral — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 22:11:46 -0800

"I've been a lurker here for a long time but was under the impression paying through PayPal would be a lot more difficult than it actually was. " It's only difficult for Matt getting the money out.