Mesmero Mesmerizes marts

The Grim Squeaker · Post by **The Grim Squeaker** » 2008-03-23 09:04am

Beeb wrote: 'Hypnotist' thief hunted in Italy

CCTV footage of the 'hypnotist' in action

Police in Italy have issued footage of a man who is suspected of hypnotising supermarket checkout staff to hand over money from their cash registers.

In every case, the last thing staff reportedly remember is the thief leaning over and saying: "Look into my eyes", before finding the till empty.

In the latest incident captured on CCTV, he targeted a bank at Ancona in northern Italy, then calmly walked out.

A female bank clerk reportedly handed over nearly 800 euros (£630).

The cashier who was shown the video footage has no memory of the incident, according to Italian media, and only realised what had happened when she saw the money missing.

CCTV from the bank showed her apparently being hypnotised by the man, according to the reports.

Italian police believe the suspect could be of Indian or North African extraction.

I for one, welcome our new Mind controlling overlords!

Shroom Man 777 · Post by **Shroom Man 777** » 2008-03-23 09:15am

How does THAT work? Seriously?

Rye · Post by **Rye** » 2008-03-23 09:53am

Hypnotism makes people very suggestible. While it won't make them murder someone, you can influence people to look the other way and forget while you steal money or get them to believe you just gave them a receipt or something that needs reimbursing. It's really quite odd stuff.

Shroom Man 777 · Post by **Shroom Man 777** » 2008-03-23 10:04am

How does one do that? I mean, is it something in the voice? What is the exact method? How can you quantify it and replicate it?

I want to be a hypnotist.

PainRack · Post by **PainRack** » 2008-03-23 10:07am

Yuri Lives!!!!!!!!!!!

SilverWingedSeraph · Post by **SilverWingedSeraph** » 2008-03-23 10:15am

Holy shit.

That is totally awesome. In a criminal sort of way. Still, you can't help but have some admiration for the dude. Or at least... I can't. That's pretty impressive. I don't condone it, certainly, but it's still both cool and hilarious.

Lord Poe · Post by **Lord Poe** » 2008-03-23 11:55am

Shroom Man 777 wrote:How does THAT work? Seriously?

I'll tell you...it takes a bit of horse and shit to pull off successfully.

Finding out the cashiers were in league with this guy in 3...2...1...

Duckie · Post by **Duckie** » 2008-03-23 01:50pm

Derren Brown strikes again?

The first thing you'd think is he, like this robber, could be so scary if he used his powers for evil instead of entertainment. But it's interesting that he almost certainly fails quite a few times for any given spectacular result, like the few times he showed on his show.

Raw Shark · Post by **Raw Shark** » 2008-03-23 02:45pm

Shroom Man 777 wrote:How does THAT work? Seriously?

In my anecdotal experience volunteering to assist a "hypnotic entertainer," it works quite well... on certain people. A large part of his technique seemed to involve knowing who to choose from the audience, and he had a few quick tests after that which eliminated a further 3/4 of the group before he really tried anything. I'd imagine that the bank robber would have to perform these observations very carefully and from a distance.

After that he spent about five minutes getting us to relax, eliminating a couple more people. This could probably be skipped with a victim who is visibly zoned out seven hours into a cashier shift and not expecting anything.

I can't describe it as well after that point because I was among the 25% of the volunteers who stayed on stage for the whole show despite my mild initial skepticism (IE: This crap totally works on me), but it mostly seems to involve the rhythm and inflection of his speaking after that. I didn't feel irresistably compelled to do anything, but I found myself and some other people I consider sensible agreeing that it would be really funny to play along with some comedy routines that I found were very much not to my taste when described to me in retrospect. The guy's actual material was on a 5th Grade lunchroom level, but at the time I readily agreed that it'd be hilarious.

Naturally the stakes are much higher getting somebody to betray their employer rather than their own sense of humor and dignity. The surprise factor probably makes up for that though, my guard was never really down when it worked on me.

hongi · Post by **hongi** » 2008-03-23 07:38pm

Awesome. I heard that for a hypnotised person to do anything, the suggestions have to be something they'd already be willing to do, or at least not so totally out of character that they'd resist strongly. Like killing a person for example. If I had to guess, the cashiers already want to take money out of the register (giving change is a normal part of the routine after all) so the hypnotist fed upon that desire.

The Vortex Empire · Post by **The Vortex Empire** » 2008-03-23 07:45pm

Holy shit. I knew hypnotism could work on some people, but this? Wow.

But seriously, easy solution to this problem. Every cashier should be issued a tin foil hat. Works every time.