Decoy Wallet

A neat little trick if you're in a jam is to carry a decoy wallet and use it to distract, confuse and regain the initiative.

A decoy wallet is basically a dummy wallet filled with cheap, obsolete currency and any membership cards with no personal details on them etc.

Some of you may have one or carried one in the past.

The premise is that if you are on the receiving end of an armed robbery or being mugged / threatened you can throw / pass your decoy wallet and make a run for it while they rummage through your worthless wallet.

Now this method will work to an extent but unless the robber simply turns and runs away in haste (without checking the wallet) you will have an angry enemy on your heels.
What happens next is your call and for another thread, but one variation on the decoy wallet only used once on the silver screen:

www.youtube.com...

The key 'demonstration' on the above link is at 0:50 when the robbers pointing the shotgun at the horseman.

I guess that could work.
I prefer this though


If you think the robber is going to run anyways, might as well make him run away a little sooner.

Edit to add Dirty Harry quote.

But being as this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world, and would blow your head clean off, you've got to ask yourself one question: Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?

[edit on 5-10-2008 by Snift]

Originally posted by WatchRider
A neat little trick if you're in a jam is to carry a decoy wallet and use it to distract, confuse and regain the initiative.

A decoy wallet is basically a dummy wallet filled with cheap, obsolete currency and any membership cards with no personal details on them etc.

Some of you may have one or carried one in the past.

The premise is that if you are on the receiving end of an armed robbery or being mugged / threatened you can throw / pass your decoy wallet and make a run for it while they rummage through your worthless wallet.

Now this method will work to an extent but unless the robber simply turns and runs away in haste (without checking the wallet) you will have an angry enemy on your heels.
What happens next is your call and for another thread, but one variation on the decoy wallet only used once on the silver screen:

www.youtube.com...

The key 'demonstration' on the above link is at 0:50 when the robbers pointing the shotgun at the horseman.

Great post WatchRider, I have heard about a decoy wallet before in the past and think its an extremely useful item/tactic to have. Would definately come in useful in rough inner cities etc

As you said you can use it to con your assailants or use it as a distraction device so you can make your counter attack.

Top find!

The way I see it, ANY wallet stuffed with ANY currency and ANY credit cards (inlcuding my current ones) is pretty worthless compared to my life and/or health. I see it as ridiculous to try and save a little money while possibly increasing the already significant risk to one's person which is inherent any robbery.

I've lost my wallet a couple of times, and on another occasion my debit cards were stolen. Apart from trivial inconveniences, I didn't lose much (I did have to renew my green card, driver license and fill out a bunch of FBI forms to get my money back for the debit card purchases, but I lived!).

What's the point?..

Originally posted by buddhasystem
The way I see it, ANY wallet stuffed with ANY currency and ANY credit cards (inlcuding my current ones) is pretty worthless compared to my life and/or health. I see it as ridiculous to try and save a little money while possibly increasing the already significant risk to one's person which is inherent any robbery.

I've lost my wallet a couple of times, and on another occasion my debit cards were stolen. Apart from trivial inconveniences, I didn't lose much (I did have to renew my green card, driver license and fill out a bunch of FBI forms to get my money back for the debit card purchases, but I lived!).

What's the point?..

Aside from you saying you lost your wallet (a very different situation to a decoy wallet being used)
To me you show a very defeatist and negative attitude to have in any situation.
Would you allow someone to take your last meal without giving something like this a try?
What if sentimental artifacts and pictures were in there?
I would try the DW before some lowlife got their hands on them mate.

I think if you take positive action and pre-emp situations BEFORE they happen then you'll come through the other side a lot better than others might.
As soon as you allow someone to just merely dominate your wallet and cash you allow them to dominate you as well.
In the case of a woman this could be unthinkable.
I really often wonder why people post such talk in a 'Survival' thread, it isn't conducive to the pro-active attitude and mentality we need here.
So lets just leave the bleeding heart liberal mentality behind please.

Originally posted by WatchRider
To me you show a very defeatist and negative attitude to have in any situation.

First, you don't know me. Second, walking away from a bad situation with my life and limbs intact is not a defeat. Sorry if I popped your ballon, i.e. a fairly silly idea.

Would you allow someone to take your last meal without giving something like this a try?

Absolutely. I can go hungry for one night... And I don't think there are many people who carry all of their life possessions in their wallet.

As soon as you allow someone to just merely dominate your wallet and cash you allow them to dominate you as well.

I retire from this discussion as you seem to be taken by your ostensibly bright idea and any sense of reason has fled you. Good luck saving your 20 bucks. You surely deserve a Darwin award should that fail.

I simply keep any significant cash in a different pocket to my wallet - thus my wallet is relativly expendable .

i am not a sentimentalist - i do not keep any personal items in my wallet - just change , credit / debit cards , library card , tesco club card etc

also i consider when and why i need cash - and get the requipred ammout from a banm / atm / or store ` cashback ` just before i think i will need it - or in response to an ` impulse ` purchase at a venue that does not take credit cards

IMHO the decoy wallet - will simply provoke a reaction of rage from your assailiant - escalating the situation

Originally posted by buddhasystem

Originally posted by WatchRider
To me you show a very defeatist and negative attitude to have in any situation.

First, you don't know me. Second, walking away from a bad situation with my life and limbs intact is not a defeat. Sorry if I popped your ballon, i.e. a fairly silly idea.

Never said I even knew you. You don't know me either mate. Lets keep it that way eh?

You can walk away if you want skint and penniless, what happens if it was SITX and you needed a more.

Would you allow someone to take your last meal without giving something like this a try?

Absolutely. I can go hungry for one night... And I don't think there are many people who carry all of their life possessions in their wallet.

Good for you, but the survival mentality is more than pacifistic notions, which don't always work. Like when the attacker just kills you as well as take what's yours.

As soon as you allow someone to just merely dominate your wallet and cash you allow them to dominate you as well.

I retire from this discussion as you seem to be taken by your ostensibly bright idea and any sense of reason has fled you. Good luck saving your 20 bucks. You surely deserve a Darwin award should that fail.

Retire away, but the only Darwin man is you, lying there with his knowledge that lying down for the enemy got his last meal taken along with his life!

I'm spending the 20 bucks on a meal now! Cheers.

Put a couple of razor knife blades dipped in pepper spray in the decoy wallet.

Most criminal will clean out the wallet as fast as possible and dump it so that the cops don't find them with the wallet.

This will be done on the run as the criminal flees the area before the cops show.

Trying to clean out a wallet on the run is not a carefully done job.
and it is likely that the criminal will cut himself and with the pepper spray on them it will HURT.
This may cause him to try to find a place to clean the wound and he may dump the bloody wallet there and this might give him away.

Someone with a bloody hand and clothes will always peak the curiosity of cops.
plus a blood trail is easy to fallow.

The only time I have been threatened by a mugger was in London home of the ban it mentality ( IE the more defenceless you are the safer you are) I was walking up from Kings Cross Station to Euston Station, middle of the day about 10 years ago when three teens walked up and started hasseling me, One pulled a smallish knife and the other said give us your cash and smokes, I pulled my AG RUSSELL Sting from under my sweat top and they decided discretion was the better part of valour and ran off.

The laws on self defence in the UK go completely against your human right to defend yourself. The cops are armed to the teeth for self defence, yet robbers, muggers and rapists dont go hunting them, Yet the public in the UK are just victims in waiting. The police say ( officially) that if you carry a gun or knife you are more likely to be shot or stabbed !!!, So why do they carry guns, knives, sprays and batons, sureluy using their own daft logic they would also be safer going around defenceless.

Exactly how many druggies, gangstas, muggers, street thugs, perverts , rapists and murderers go out looking for cops to attack??, Yeah they go for the most vulnerable in society , who are in that position because of stupid govt policy and a police force who sold out.

[edit on 8-10-2008 by Northern Raider]

Originally posted by WatchRider
To me you show a very defeatist and negative attitude to have in any situation.

No, he/she shows a very realistic and positive attitude. Why would you risk pissing off the guy with the gun?

Originally posted by WatchRider
Would you allow someone to take your last meal without giving something like this a try?
What if sentimental artifacts and pictures were in there?
I would try the DW before some lowlife got their hands on them mate.

The example given above is not comparable to having your wallet stolen. Someone isn't after your last meal, they are after a quick few dollars and maybe a cheap thrill.

Sentimental artifacts don't mean a god damn thing when the mugger realizes you just gave him a decoy wallet. Chances are they will take the wallet and run, but if they don't, and realize what you tryed to pull, they may hurt and/or kill you.

The 'lowlife' may have that picture of your kids from their soccer game, but you have your kids and they have their parent.

Originally posted by WatchRider
I think if you take positive action and pre-emp situations BEFORE they happen then you'll come through the other side a lot better than others might.

In an 'end-of-society', SHTF, type scenario, where it's your last scrap of food, then perhaps you are right.

But it seems like you intent this advise for the every day. Positive action in the circumstance of a mugging is to just hand over the wallet. Paper is worthless, your life isn't

Originally posted by WatchRider
As soon as you allow someone to just merely dominate your wallet and cash you allow them to dominate you as well.
In the case of a woman this could be unthinkable.

There is a time and a place for that mentality and, once again, a mugging is not that time. Your pride and your ego can be bruised, who cares? Unless you want, "Why the hell didn't he just give them the money?" to be your eulogy.

Originally posted by WatchRider
I really often wonder why people post such talk in a 'Survival' thread, it isn't conducive to the pro-active attitude and mentality we need here. So lets just leave the bleeding heart liberal mentality behind please.

No, this is dangerous and irresponsible advise. I hope that everyone reading this right now understands this, and that the mods close this thread.

Life isn't an over-romantasized movie. You may want to put yourself in needless danger, but god help you if anyone following your advise ever gets hurt or worse.

You make me sick, really, you do.

[edit on 10/8/0808 by spines]

[edit on 10/8/0808 by spines]

[edit on 10/8/0808 by spines]

[edit on 10/8/0808 by spines]

oh dear - what a carry on

it seems that the thread starter is so emotionally attached to his " brilliant idea " that he now views any critique of it as a personal attack or sign of mental incompetance

he thinks it is so dammed good that anyone who does not embrace it whole heartedly is cleary an imbicile who does not deserve to survive , and is unfit to be left unsupervised

the " decoy wallet "tm even has a snappy acronym the DW , how can you not like anything with a sanppy acronym ?

discussing it further is clearly pointless - the threadstarter will not be swayed , nor brook any criticism of his " great idea "

harly conducive to a DISCUSSION forum , but hey - people get like that sometimes

Never lost a wallet, nor had any reason to have a decoy wallet.

You know, sometimes the best deterrent to a mugger is to not advertise.

Like those blinking car alarm lights. That is a beacon just asking for a thief to come along and break into your vehicle and steal it.

Might as well put up a lighted neon sign saying "come n get it"!!!

Cheers!!!!

reply to post by ignorant_ape


Agreed to a point.

I question him openly only because I fear that others will see the 'DW' as presented by the OP and those who initially responded in agreement as a good idea; as something they too should begin doing.

I realize that I am not going to 'sway' the opinion of the OP or those who already see this as a great idea, but perhaps I can poke enough holes so others can see through this terrible, dangerous idea.

Rational voice may fall on deaf ears sometimes, but to not openly question and detail the idea is quite possibly, in this case, a very dangerous silence.

Nice idea WR ...but i'll stick to my 'muggers coins'

For the uninitiated, 'muggers cash' is simply a pocketfull of silver and gold loose change, that when cornered and commanded to "empty your pockets" by an assailant, you grab the coins from your pocket whilst making to empty it and hand over the contents, and then suddenly throw them as hard and fast as you can in your attacker's face.

This causes a conflict in the mind of the attacker...whether they should pick up the cash, or pursue/defend-against you

This will allow you a vital few seconds to either escape and run like the wind, or to close in for a debilitating self-defence blow; that choice will be determined by your own self-confidence in either fighting or fleeing skills, but as someone who has used this very method to escape a night-time street robbery attempt, I can attest to it's usefulness

back to the decoy-wallet idea...

As it's now the season for funghi in all its benign and *ahem* neurologically-malevolant varieties, if you picked a bag-full of those, and used the active ingredients to coat your DW c/c and other dummy-cards with, you could guarantee that whilst you may survive the visceral experience of a street-robbery, it will pale into comparison to the poor sod/s who have gone through your stolen wallet and gotten a skin-absorbed dose of something that will scare them to the roots of their very soul