BBC: 'Hypnotist' thief hunted in Italy

[Fasto]

I thought I'd posted this a few minutes ago, but apparently I hadn't, so here we go:

According to the BBC:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7309947.stm



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.

As far as I know you can't hypnotise someone who isn't willing to be put in such a state.
I find it hard to imagine that this kind of robbery would actually happen.

Scam?

[fuelair]

I thought I'd posted this a few minutes ago, but apparently I hadn't, so here we go:

According to the BBC:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7309947.stm



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.

As far as I know you can't hypnotise someone who isn't willing to be put in such a state.
I find it hard to imagine that this kind of robbery would actually happen.

Scam?
And you can't do it in those conditions - unless you've given the victim drugs prior to help.

[JonWhite]

If this were actually possible, there would be a lot of very rich hypnotists out there.

Key word: "suspected of hypnotising supermarket checkout staff"

[Azrael 5]

Look into my eyes,look into my eyes don't look around my eyes..and you're under! You wil empty the till and give me all your money!

http://www.littlerbritain.com/images/gallery/kenny_craig_02.jpg :D

[Nursefoxfire]

Look into my eyes,look into my eyes don't look around my eyes..and you're under! You wil empty the till and give me all your money!

http://www.littlerbritain.com/images/gallery/kenny_craig_02.jpg :D


You beat me to it, that's EXACTLY who I was thinking! Master Hypnotist Kenny Craig :D

p.s. I especially loved the sketch where he's playing Scrabble with his mother and tries to hypnotize her, and she calls his bluff.

[Moochie]

Check-out people self-hypnotize to get through the mind numbing monotony of the day. This one was either deep under, or in cahoots.

M.

ETA: It makes more sense if you liken it to going on auto-pilot when driving routine routes.

[Sasha]

Well, he'll never be caught - if he's that powerful, all he has to do is tell his captors "you don't remember seeing me" and run off.

[Lianad]

I saw this story on our local news. Besides bursting out with laughter at how ridiculous it was, I realized it was much more probable that the cashier was friends with the "thief", gave him the money because she was new and or/a *********** moron and didn't know they counted her register, or had hidden cameras..

I mean you're confronted at the end of the day by security "your drawer is $500 short, we've checked tapes and saw you give a man the money", what would you do? Confess? Nooo of course not! Make up some ridiculous story so you don't go to jail!! "Wow I had no idea, he must have hypnotized me or something because I have no recollection of giving him money, wow he must be a very powerful shaman/mystic/hypnotizer !!"

GIve me a break

[Rufo]

I do believe this form of waking hypnosis by suggestion is possible, but it does require some kind of mental cooperation from the subject. Not necessarily agreement on being hypnotised, but a strong belief that the method does work. So as long as someone strongly believes they will be hypnotised, even though they wish not to, it may work. And hey, even though the chances are of success are slim at best, it's not like anyone it doesn't work on is going to do much except laugh at you, right?

Still, there are other explanations, so maybe this theoretical possibility is not very interesting.