Sam Trenholme's webpage
This article was posted to the Usenet group alt.hackers in 1995; any technical information is probably outdated.

Re: How can I deal with a food stealer?


Article: 7464 of alt.hackers
Newsgroups: alt.hackers
From: pcl@foo.oucs.ox.ac.uk (Paul C Leyland)
Subject: Re: How can I deal with a food stealer?
Message-ID: PCL.95Mar1173842@foo.oucs.ox.ac.uk
In-reply-to: mckeever@unixg.ubc.ca's message of Sun, 19 Feb 1995 17:18:10 -0800
	<mckeever-1902951718100001@merlin.cust.educ.ubc.ca>
Date: 01 Mar 1995 17:38:42 GMT
Approved: sure is
Lines: 55
Status: RO

In article <mckeever-1902951718100001@merlin.cust.educ.ubc.ca>
mckeever@unixg.ubc.ca (Rob McKeever) writes:


   > : else's food?	Do you know of commonly available substances that
   could be
   > : used in small quantities to induce 1) vomiting 2) diarrhea 3) other
   > : memorable discomfort?  Or other ways to deal with this.  I have
   already
   > : started to spit in some of my food; it helps a little.

   A friend of the family had a similar problem several years ago.  The easiest
   way I can think of to cause diarrhea is to add a small amount of either
   phyenothaliene (as Hammond mentioned below) or some sort of anti-biotic

Phenylphthalene is the correct spelling (I think!)

   (Remember - always verify the toxicity levels and effects of any chemicals
   your considering yourself before attempting to poison, er, trick, them.
   Safety first!)

Yeah, being busted for poisoning someone can be bad for your lifestyle.

   A personal friend of mine related to me the story of when he used to work
   at a chemical supply house.	One of his coworkers had been advised to
   monitor the color of his urine due to some (unknown to me) medical
   condition.  Some the this unlucky fellows 'friends' decided to add
   something that I think was called "Nestor's Regent" (or
   something like
   that) to the water in the toilet bowl and then wait for him to use it.
   Upon contact with the ammonia in his urine, it began it's color change
   sequence: covered most of the rainbow in a semi-mixed up order.

Nice!

Here's a hack we used to use at parties back in the late 70's (I'm an
ex-chemist, BTW).  In this country (UK) at least, it is not unusual to
have a barrel of beer at a party, and anyone who feels like drinking
the stuff helps themselves to a portion of its contents.  Adding a
*small* amount of fluorescein to the beer before the party starts is
completely harmless and most unlikely to be detected by casual
inspection unless there are uv lamps around.

You then replace all the lights in the toilets with uv tubes.  It's
generally the men who notice something is unusual.

(For non-chemists, fluorescein is a dark reddish-brown powder which
disolves in water, is non-toxic, tasteless, odourless and is not
metabolized in the body.  It just goes straight through the kidneys.
However, in uv light, including daylight, it fluoresces a bright
yellow-green.)

Paul
--
Paul Leyland <pcl@sable.ox.ac.uk>        | Hanging on in quiet
desperation is
Oxford University Computing Services	 |     the English way.
13 Banbury Road, Oxford, OX2 6NN, UK	 | The time is gone, the song is over.
Tel: +44-865-273200  Fax: +44-865-273275 | Thought I'd something more to say.
Finger pcl@sable.ox.ac.uk for PGP key	 |



gone Parent

Child Child

Back to index