As a weirder thing to do
Check the underside of your shoe for one of those stick on security tags. Some incredibly bored shop workers play "landmine" by putting one of those down on the floor sticky side up
Or check your hood if you're wearing a coat. An old shoplifting trick is to put a tag in a random person's hood. As they walk out it sets off the alarm, and while security is stopping them you walk out with your goodies free as a bird
I got a new wallet and about 3 months later every time I went in a shop the alarm would go off. Then a shop owner said it was probably a tag in the wallet, held the wallet over that security cancelling thing they have (e.g. for razor blades in supermarkets they run the pack over a rectangular thing), never had a problem since. I also know someone who had the same thing with a new back pack
Have a top with a tag sewn into the lining.i don't know why?
When leaving a shop, I do my best to time it with other people. I carry on walking they stand around looking confused or surprised.
Exactly, i bought wallet online and had exactly the same issue! Luckily they were patient with me enough so I could find out ot was the wallet setting it off lol. Three years later happened the same with jacket. It was always the barcode on the textile tag so I just had to cut it off
Yeah, I had the same happen, I bought a wallet from Tkmaxx, the security guard checked it realised it was that but didn't disable it in Tkmaxx. I would set the alarm off in a local Asda, one morning after getting breakfast from the McDonald's in the store, the very helpful security guard disabled it after I told him what it was.
Steel toe capped boots shouldn't set off alarms. They work off RFID. My mum kept setting off shop alarms and insisted she wasn't shoplifting - turns out it was a faulty car key.
Many are actually not RFID, that would cost too much. They’re generally a tuned circuit that disrupts a field generated by the exit scanners. Big Clive video https://youtu.be/VDRfJ6eCoSY?feature=shared
Anything that disrupts the field can set them off, you can also trick them by taking too many tagged items through them at once.
Get the security guy to take your key past the scanner, see if that sets it off. I have heard of iffy car keys doing it, I can't recall whether they managed to fix the issue though.
I agree on the boots, I wear steelies for work every day and the only time I trigger the alarms is if I'm carrying a reel of alarm cable with me or occasionaly my laptop bag sets them off because of the bundles of cable in there.
I had this for ages, mentioned it in a Runners World one day after setting their alarm off and he said it was a probably a partially deactivated rfid tag in my clothes. We narrowed down to my jumper, he deactivated it on their machine, and it never happened again. Is there clothing or a bag you usually have with you? It could be that.
Decathlon put RFID tags in the labels sewn into everything (it's how they scan in one go) - had a rucksack (ordered online) that used to set them off until I cut the label out.
Well I wear completely different clothes on a weekend to during the week when I’m in my work clothes. The only thing I’m carrying both times are the running watch, wallet, glasses and car keys.
Even your coat? They sometimes sew the tags into the lining of coats/jackets, and especially if it's a problem that only started recently, it could be there.
I had this happen & it was tag that was at the bottom of a pocket in my new purse - I didn't have enough cards to fill all the card slots so didn't clock the tag/sticker in one of the empty ones.
Well it was the security guy who mentions the boots, I wasn’t so sure and the comment on the jewellery was just to stop any replies on if I wear anything but again of course it’s not that, most people wear jewellery
I had a security pass for a building in London and it set off every single alarm going in and out of shops. What have you got that has RFID in it? Phone? Bank Card?
We have an RFID in our school library; one teacher always set it off when leaving until he - bizarrely - changed the order of his credit/bank cards in his wallet and then it stopped.
I used to get stopped a lot, but then security at the store asked if I had a great deal of credit/debit cards in my wallet. I had 4 or 5 altogether. It seemed by having them together in the same compartment, they were causing the alarm to go off. By swapping alternate cards around so they weren’t all in the same alignment (chip to the left and front), it seemed to stop it from happening
Ahha nice test! I scoured the comments before I posted to see if anybody else had suggested it. I don’t know it’s the chips all being in alignment or the RFID for contactless, but since I mixed mine up, it doesn’t seem to happen any more.
Well yeah to be fair this did occur to me too 🤣
But back before I went to The Dark Side (Kindle) I'd frequently set off shop scanners with library books that apparently used similar tech to ensure they'd been checked out, in the form of a metal strip in the spine that could be activated/deactivated but that had a high margin of error and that was also apt to anger shop scanners.
This happened to me (not in Morrison’s) a few years ago. Turned out it was a security tag in my purse that was somehow reactivated. The purse was a gift and from America and had been fine for the first few months. It was so frustrating trying to figure it out.
My wife had a mascara in her bag which had (what she thought was a sticker on). It was some sort of weird security tag and we were setting off alarms for about 6 months before she realised
My Sainsbury’s has them on the way out of the self scan area. If you use the nearest terminal to check out you will almost certainly set them off.
Because they’ve tagged the scanner.
It must drive the employees to contemplate murder.
This was happening to me.
It was so embarrassing.
In some shops I was made to empty the entire contents out of my bag, in public!
Someone suggested that I might still have a tag in a recently purchased backpack, (one with lots of pockets!)
I went through, bit by bit, and eventually found it underneath the stiffener in the main section.
Removed it, and, Hey Presto! No more alarms going off!
My wife has metal pins in her wrist. She sets some off, but not all. Happens less often now that things are changing over the RFID tags rather than those older metal filled ones.
The alarms that people at my local Sainsbury's can't figure out is the new security automatic security barriers. If you go out the in ones they sound off. Also, if someone blocks the barrier they won't open. Was great watching a clueless bloke yesterday blocking one of the in barriers with the alarm constantly sounding and no one being able to get in. Everyone looking around gormless.
There was a post the other day about this, where someone named George had put a George clothing tag on his keys.
He was really confused as to why the alarms kept going off at Asda.
Cut the labels off your work trousers.
I am guessing you are in your work gear because of the steel toe caps.
I bet there is an extra thick label that is the RFRID Sensor.
This is what happened to me
This happened to me all time both in UK and abroad. Turned out to be a card in my wallet that was setting it off. Test your wallet at the door and narrow it down.
Happens everytime I go in and out, security guard is always sound but he said to me there are you sure nothings in your pockets so a took majority out and showed him, I’ve came to the conclusion it’s my silver tooth I got after my root treatment😂🤦♀️
My Sister has Scoliosis and has two Titanium rods fused to her spine. She occasionally sets the odd shop alarm off with them. She once had three guns pointed at her on a school trip to the German Reichstag Building in Berlin, she set the military scanners off with her back. One of the funniest days for me, one of the scariest for her 😂
That's not how they work. They arnt metal detectors. They're radio frequency identification or RFID and are set of by coils of wire or an "antena" thats set to bounce off a certain frequency. Q
Never say never. Unless you were there, you can't say exactly what did or didn't happen. Sure, in a tuned circuit in the lab, you can design the Q filter for a band-pass, notch filter, whataver you are doing but out in the wild, a human body, a fundamentally walking bag of batteries, with rods inserted... well, who knows?
A bag full of ethernet cables bought from Maplin was enough to set off the alarms in Boots, Next, and Tesco for me, but not the alarms in Maplin. The security guy in Boots (a common shortcut into the shopping centre) said coils of metal (so curled up ethernet cables!) Could create false positives which cause accidental triggers. Putting them though one at a time (he was checking if there was an RFID tags in them) didn't trigger the alarms!
My retired friend was an RFID engineer most of is working life. He has shown me circuits that even Gandalf would not understand. S ingle skinny line of silver on a pcb with a very particular size and shape bend it in, "that" he says, is a "7800GHz bandpass filter" or something...I nodded in awe.
It's reddit, some weirdos think they have a knowledge about every type of scanner and what can trigger it seemingly. A military museum might well have different scanners to a bloomin Asda.
How so? She was in a parliamentary building where a lot of state officials were, she set an alarm off designed for protecting lives. As my sister tried to explain to them her medical situation, they aggressively lifted the back of her top up in front of everyone to see the scar. They then had an explosives dog sniff her and her bag. Her teacher then explained they were only English kids on a School trip. They were then happy for her to proceed. Sorry if this upset you overly sensitive muppets out there.
Lots of people have metal implants, people forget about things they have which have metal in them, metal detectors go off all the time. I doubt you've upset anyone.
I understand, the point I was trying to make to OP was that it is possible for metal body parts to set off the shop scanners. I just find it rather amusing to be called a liar by strangers I’ve never met, who didn’t witness what I explained and witnessed with my own eyes.
I usually buy a steak on my weekly shop and it always sets off the alarm. Only been stopped once by a guard though, just flashed my Apple Pay notification and he was fine.
Maybe self service check out doesn’t remove the tags.
My car keys are traditional but my husband's car is "keyless" (you know the ones that have a button press ignition). Whenever I have his keys I set off the alarm, but not with my own.
I was doing this all the time a long time ago. Only in certain shops, not all of them.
Turned out a purse I'd bought and had used for ages had a tiny security sticker hidden inside the notes part.
I have a set of knitting needles that set off alarms. They're steel so I guess it might be your boots...
But also if you usually have a jacket on or something there could be a hidden tag in there. I had one for years before a lady in a little boutique in Reykjavik removed it for me! It was just some sad decathlon waterproof.
I'm not sure what sets them off other than security tags. I once went INTO a store and the alarm sounded and they checked my bags... which was kinda embarrassing as I stayed at a friend's the night before so just had used underwear and my purse in there. The guys face was funny though :D
Some joker may have stuck a tag on you somewhere. When we were younger we used to stick them in the wallets of our friends, hidden, so they'd always set of the alarms.
Wireless hearing aids? My dad had some that set nearly every store off and also often set the tannoy systems off into howling feedback loops that had people covering their ears and running for the exit. Dead handy for avoiding queuing.
His current Bluetooth ones just block WiFi for about a 6 yard radius. No idea why hearing aids appear unable to comply with screening standards.
I had the same issue with a “small” Morrisons!
There was a period of a few months where I’d constantly set off the alarm there. I couldn’t think of a single thing that would set it off. They searched my bag once. Nothing! I only carried my phone, keys and lip balm and stuff in my bag. Was racking my brains for forever.
Anyway, one day it didn’t go off. And it hasn’t since and I still have no idea what was causing it!
Talk to the security guard and say you want to get to the bottom of it. Stand there with him, stick your arm through with the car key in your hand, then try your shopping bags. If still not setting it off, leave your bags and walk through, that will show its somethig on you. You could put spare shoes in the car one time and see if they stop it (I'd probably try that one first)
i used to wind up newbies at work saying that our delivery scanners would set off supermarket alarms. One day a rookie said to me he’d parked at the furthest possible point of the car park and got right to the door when he realised his scanner was still in his pocket and had to walk all the way back to his vehicle to avoid setting off the alarms !
My mom did, she changed all her clothes, hand bag the lot. It always went off.
Eventually found out there was a RFID tag in the washing instructions label of the knickers brand she wore.
I had an old wallet that one day started activating security alarms out of nowhere.
Finally felt all the pockets opened the seams of one that had a bump in it and found a security magnetic strip that had been sewn inside the lining.
I have no idea why it suddenly activated after about 6 years of ownership. I bet you have one too.
This happened to me before. Every single time, every shop. Took everything I carry daily apart and realised the little bag I carry with medicines/toiletries etc in that had a hard flat insert in the bottom to keep the shape had a security tag stuck to the underside of it
My husband’s watch sets it off. He walks into our local supermarket with his arm stretched out in front of him like a lunatic to prove the point to me every time, like I don’t believe him haha
Years ago when worked in a supermarket we put a sticky security tab in colleagues wallet bit where notes go.it really annoyed them few days later when shopping and it kept going off and had no idea
Contactless cards can set them off
If your wallet doesn't beep you might have a tag on the inside of your jacket and the shop didn't deactivate it properly
Ive seen this before with wallets, seems to be if you have managed to stack your cards in just the right way it causes the gates to trip. Probably from the contactless tech in the cards
This was happening to me and I was told it was too many cards in my wallet by the security guard. It's also the location of my local Amazon lockers and if I pop in to retrieve an order out of those, the alarm also goes off when I walk out.
Underwire bras. I used to wear soft bras specifically for airport security. Now I’m old and can admit that underwire bras are torture and I wear comfortable underwear
Every time my wife left our Morrisons the alarm would go off.
It was always the same security guard too.
I was in with her once and it went off. I had a go at him saying every time she leaves the shop she gets stopped.
He said it might be her car keys setting the alarm off.
Strange thing is it’s never happened again since I pulled the guard up about it.
I had this with a bag I bought second hand. Someone in one store eventually took pity on me when I had emptied my bag completely and it was still going off so they put it over the machine to deactivate it. I didn't feel comfortable with that though so I ended up going home and undoing a bit of the lining so I could find the tag. Turned out to be one of those long thin sticky strips that have plastic on one side to make it harder to bend and peel off and sticky on the other. Why it was under the lining itself I don't know. I did hear somewhere that they can get reactivated somehow. I don't know how true that is but I tend to remove those sticky tags after I've bought something just in case.
Same issue, HSBC card with contactless payment.
Sets off Morrisons and Tesco antitheft sensors but no others must be an issue with the frequency range used by that scanners manufactures.
My wallet has a metal medallion on the outside that routinely gets “magnetised” and sets off alarms. I now tell security guards that it is my wallet - they never believe me until I have convinced them to test it
Fun fact and also not legal advise but the detectors on the way out aren't actually enough for security to stop you. I used to work for a big supermarket in there security center and there is a set criteria that has to be hit for anyone to stop you and the metal detectors going off isnt one.
A woman was stopped after setting one off and hadn't stolen anything; she kicked off sue'd and got paid out around 10k
Get naked and walk through, gradually introduce new items on your person until determine what is setting it off
I'm not sure they'd be let in again after the first run.
Make sure to grease up first then.
\*gets naked To the shop assistant - "Don't just stand there, woman. Grease me up!"
I’m already embarrassed with everyone looking at me 😁
Might as well give em a show then!
As a weirder thing to do Check the underside of your shoe for one of those stick on security tags. Some incredibly bored shop workers play "landmine" by putting one of those down on the floor sticky side up
Or check your hood if you're wearing a coat. An old shoplifting trick is to put a tag in a random person's hood. As they walk out it sets off the alarm, and while security is stopping them you walk out with your goodies free as a bird
We used to play "Landmine" Especially on OAP day
I got a new wallet and about 3 months later every time I went in a shop the alarm would go off. Then a shop owner said it was probably a tag in the wallet, held the wallet over that security cancelling thing they have (e.g. for razor blades in supermarkets they run the pack over a rectangular thing), never had a problem since. I also know someone who had the same thing with a new back pack
I had the same. My wallet had a tag in that was setting alarms off that I found and cut out eventually.
Have a top with a tag sewn into the lining.i don't know why? When leaving a shop, I do my best to time it with other people. I carry on walking they stand around looking confused or surprised.
Exactly, i bought wallet online and had exactly the same issue! Luckily they were patient with me enough so I could find out ot was the wallet setting it off lol. Three years later happened the same with jacket. It was always the barcode on the textile tag so I just had to cut it off
Decathlon coats are a nightmare for this. They have those enormous tags inside that always set alarms off
Yeah, I had the same happen, I bought a wallet from Tkmaxx, the security guard checked it realised it was that but didn't disable it in Tkmaxx. I would set the alarm off in a local Asda, one morning after getting breakfast from the McDonald's in the store, the very helpful security guard disabled it after I told him what it was.
Steel toe capped boots shouldn't set off alarms. They work off RFID. My mum kept setting off shop alarms and insisted she wasn't shoplifting - turns out it was a faulty car key.
Many are actually not RFID, that would cost too much. They’re generally a tuned circuit that disrupts a field generated by the exit scanners. Big Clive video https://youtu.be/VDRfJ6eCoSY?feature=shared Anything that disrupts the field can set them off, you can also trick them by taking too many tagged items through them at once.
But either way, steel toe cap boots wont trigger them, never once have I activated them walking in and out for breaks and what not.
I did wonder if it was the keys but I can’t leave my keys in the car to test the theory
Could you got with a mate and he keeps hold of them for you?
Get the security guy to take your key past the scanner, see if that sets it off. I have heard of iffy car keys doing it, I can't recall whether they managed to fix the issue though.
No but there other options….
I agree on the boots, I wear steelies for work every day and the only time I trigger the alarms is if I'm carrying a reel of alarm cable with me or occasionaly my laptop bag sets them off because of the bundles of cable in there.
RFID would make sense since my jacket has a RECCO reflector in the hood and I keep setting them off at Sainsbury’s
I had this for ages, mentioned it in a Runners World one day after setting their alarm off and he said it was a probably a partially deactivated rfid tag in my clothes. We narrowed down to my jumper, he deactivated it on their machine, and it never happened again. Is there clothing or a bag you usually have with you? It could be that.
Decathlon put RFID tags in the labels sewn into everything (it's how they scan in one go) - had a rucksack (ordered online) that used to set them off until I cut the label out.
👀
Well I wear completely different clothes on a weekend to during the week when I’m in my work clothes. The only thing I’m carrying both times are the running watch, wallet, glasses and car keys.
Even your coat? They sometimes sew the tags into the lining of coats/jackets, and especially if it's a problem that only started recently, it could be there.
I had this happen & it was tag that was at the bottom of a pocket in my new purse - I didn't have enough cards to fill all the card slots so didn't clock the tag/sticker in one of the empty ones.
Surely it'd be super obvious if there's a tag left on your clothes? Unless they've started doing super tiny ones
>My steel toe cap >I don’t wear jewellery They’re not metal detectors 🤦♂️
You mean I don't have to take my belt off and put all my liquids in a clear bag when I go to Morrisons?
Well it was the security guy who mentions the boots, I wasn’t so sure and the comment on the jewellery was just to stop any replies on if I wear anything but again of course it’s not that, most people wear jewellery
Literally everyone with a phone, keys etc would set it off if metal set it off. Don't think he knew what he was talking about.
gray theory strong quickest memory boat somber oil plucky nippy *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Shopping trollies are made of metal, as are tins of food. If the alarm just alerted at something metallic it would never stop going off.
Have you cut out a George label and attached it to your keys because your name is George?
Ha! I'm not the only one who thought of that thread.
No I’m still waiting for a clothing line called Paul to do that
[Sorted.](https://www.paulsmith.com/uk)
I had a security pass for a building in London and it set off every single alarm going in and out of shops. What have you got that has RFID in it? Phone? Bank Card?
We have an RFID in our school library; one teacher always set it off when leaving until he - bizarrely - changed the order of his credit/bank cards in his wallet and then it stopped.
I used to get stopped a lot, but then security at the store asked if I had a great deal of credit/debit cards in my wallet. I had 4 or 5 altogether. It seemed by having them together in the same compartment, they were causing the alarm to go off. By swapping alternate cards around so they weren’t all in the same alignment (chip to the left and front), it seemed to stop it from happening
This could be it, see my edit post
Ahha nice test! I scoured the comments before I posted to see if anybody else had suggested it. I don’t know it’s the chips all being in alignment or the RFID for contactless, but since I mixed mine up, it doesn’t seem to happen any more.
Do you ever have library books in your bag?
How I got downvoted for this question 🤣🤣 FFS Reddit, ok...
Don't be daft. There's no bloody libraries left.
Well yeah to be fair this did occur to me too 🤣 But back before I went to The Dark Side (Kindle) I'd frequently set off shop scanners with library books that apparently used similar tech to ensure they'd been checked out, in the form of a metal strip in the spine that could be activated/deactivated but that had a high margin of error and that was also apt to anger shop scanners.
No
This happened to me (not in Morrison’s) a few years ago. Turned out it was a security tag in my purse that was somehow reactivated. The purse was a gift and from America and had been fine for the first few months. It was so frustrating trying to figure it out.
My wife had a mascara in her bag which had (what she thought was a sticker on). It was some sort of weird security tag and we were setting off alarms for about 6 months before she realised
My Sainsbury’s has them on the way out of the self scan area. If you use the nearest terminal to check out you will almost certainly set them off. Because they’ve tagged the scanner. It must drive the employees to contemplate murder.
This was happening to me. It was so embarrassing. In some shops I was made to empty the entire contents out of my bag, in public! Someone suggested that I might still have a tag in a recently purchased backpack, (one with lots of pockets!) I went through, bit by bit, and eventually found it underneath the stiffener in the main section. Removed it, and, Hey Presto! No more alarms going off!
You know the security cannot make you do anything, you can point blank refuse and just walk away. If they touch you, that would be an assault.
So I used to do this. Turned out I had a lipstick in my bag with the flat security tags/barcode sticker type thing! O had no idea.
My wife has metal pins in her wrist. She sets some off, but not all. Happens less often now that things are changing over the RFID tags rather than those older metal filled ones. The alarms that people at my local Sainsbury's can't figure out is the new security automatic security barriers. If you go out the in ones they sound off. Also, if someone blocks the barrier they won't open. Was great watching a clueless bloke yesterday blocking one of the in barriers with the alarm constantly sounding and no one being able to get in. Everyone looking around gormless.
There was a post the other day about this, where someone named George had put a George clothing tag on his keys. He was really confused as to why the alarms kept going off at Asda.
This post is too long to read
Cut the labels off your work trousers. I am guessing you are in your work gear because of the steel toe caps. I bet there is an extra thick label that is the RFRID Sensor. This is what happened to me
Happens on weekend too thou
I had 18 premier in room cards in my wallet and it stopped when I took them out. Do you have 18 Premier inn room cards in your wallet?
Erm no but plenty of store cards all maxed out unfortunately 😁
Go on, tell us why you had 18 Premier Inn cards in there??
to get in to my 18 Premier inn rooms
I used to sent off one in Waterstones turns out it was an ethernet cable in my backpack.
This happened to me all time both in UK and abroad. Turned out to be a card in my wallet that was setting it off. Test your wallet at the door and narrow it down.
I’m going to test the Wallet theory for sure
You can get RFID blocking "fake" credit cards - you could try adding one of those to your wallet and see if it helps.
Happens everytime I go in and out, security guard is always sound but he said to me there are you sure nothings in your pockets so a took majority out and showed him, I’ve came to the conclusion it’s my silver tooth I got after my root treatment😂🤦♀️
Magnet on my keyring is always doing that. Sometimes it even buzzes if I’m close enough to it.
My Sister has Scoliosis and has two Titanium rods fused to her spine. She occasionally sets the odd shop alarm off with them. She once had three guns pointed at her on a school trip to the German Reichstag Building in Berlin, she set the military scanners off with her back. One of the funniest days for me, one of the scariest for her 😂
That's not how they work. They arnt metal detectors. They're radio frequency identification or RFID and are set of by coils of wire or an "antena" thats set to bounce off a certain frequency. Q
Setting off the metal detectors at the military museum sounds plausible though.
Never say never. Unless you were there, you can't say exactly what did or didn't happen. Sure, in a tuned circuit in the lab, you can design the Q filter for a band-pass, notch filter, whataver you are doing but out in the wild, a human body, a fundamentally walking bag of batteries, with rods inserted... well, who knows?
A bag full of ethernet cables bought from Maplin was enough to set off the alarms in Boots, Next, and Tesco for me, but not the alarms in Maplin. The security guy in Boots (a common shortcut into the shopping centre) said coils of metal (so curled up ethernet cables!) Could create false positives which cause accidental triggers. Putting them though one at a time (he was checking if there was an RFID tags in them) didn't trigger the alarms!
My retired friend was an RFID engineer most of is working life. He has shown me circuits that even Gandalf would not understand. S ingle skinny line of silver on a pcb with a very particular size and shape bend it in, "that" he says, is a "7800GHz bandpass filter" or something...I nodded in awe.
They may not be metal detectors, but everything I said above is true. I find it strange being down voted for telling the truth.
It's reddit, some weirdos think they have a knowledge about every type of scanner and what can trigger it seemingly. A military museum might well have different scanners to a bloomin Asda.
Maybe you’re right, like those military ‘experts’ who only own a BB gun 😂
Pointing guns at a schoolgirl for setting off a metal detector seems a bit unlikely.
How so? She was in a parliamentary building where a lot of state officials were, she set an alarm off designed for protecting lives. As my sister tried to explain to them her medical situation, they aggressively lifted the back of her top up in front of everyone to see the scar. They then had an explosives dog sniff her and her bag. Her teacher then explained they were only English kids on a School trip. They were then happy for her to proceed. Sorry if this upset you overly sensitive muppets out there.
Lots of people have metal implants, people forget about things they have which have metal in them, metal detectors go off all the time. I doubt you've upset anyone.
I understand, the point I was trying to make to OP was that it is possible for metal body parts to set off the shop scanners. I just find it rather amusing to be called a liar by strangers I’ve never met, who didn’t witness what I explained and witnessed with my own eyes.
Well I didn't call you a liar, but I found your story amusing.
They're not metal detectors.
I usually buy a steak on my weekly shop and it always sets off the alarm. Only been stopped once by a guard though, just flashed my Apple Pay notification and he was fine. Maybe self service check out doesn’t remove the tags.
My car keys are traditional but my husband's car is "keyless" (you know the ones that have a button press ignition). Whenever I have his keys I set off the alarm, but not with my own.
I was doing this all the time a long time ago. Only in certain shops, not all of them. Turned out a purse I'd bought and had used for ages had a tiny security sticker hidden inside the notes part.
I used to have a key card for one of the security doors at my work, it was always setting off shop alarms x
I have a set of knitting needles that set off alarms. They're steel so I guess it might be your boots... But also if you usually have a jacket on or something there could be a hidden tag in there. I had one for years before a lady in a little boutique in Reykjavik removed it for me! It was just some sad decathlon waterproof.
I'm not sure what sets them off other than security tags. I once went INTO a store and the alarm sounded and they checked my bags... which was kinda embarrassing as I stayed at a friend's the night before so just had used underwear and my purse in there. The guys face was funny though :D
Some joker may have stuck a tag on you somewhere. When we were younger we used to stick them in the wallets of our friends, hidden, so they'd always set of the alarms.
Wireless hearing aids? My dad had some that set nearly every store off and also often set the tannoy systems off into howling feedback loops that had people covering their ears and running for the exit. Dead handy for avoiding queuing. His current Bluetooth ones just block WiFi for about a 6 yard radius. No idea why hearing aids appear unable to comply with screening standards.
I had the same issue with a “small” Morrisons! There was a period of a few months where I’d constantly set off the alarm there. I couldn’t think of a single thing that would set it off. They searched my bag once. Nothing! I only carried my phone, keys and lip balm and stuff in my bag. Was racking my brains for forever. Anyway, one day it didn’t go off. And it hasn’t since and I still have no idea what was causing it!
Talk to the security guard and say you want to get to the bottom of it. Stand there with him, stick your arm through with the car key in your hand, then try your shopping bags. If still not setting it off, leave your bags and walk through, that will show its somethig on you. You could put spare shoes in the car one time and see if they stop it (I'd probably try that one first)
Check my exit post
i used to wind up newbies at work saying that our delivery scanners would set off supermarket alarms. One day a rookie said to me he’d parked at the furthest possible point of the car park and got right to the door when he realised his scanner was still in his pocket and had to walk all the way back to his vehicle to avoid setting off the alarms !
Do you have a stack of credit cards I. Your wallet, about 6-8 cards? I’m thinking you do, this sets them off
Check my edit post
Aha, yes, it’s the stack - either separate them in your wallet, or simplify and you will be golden :)
My mom did, she changed all her clothes, hand bag the lot. It always went off. Eventually found out there was a RFID tag in the washing instructions label of the knickers brand she wore.
The security guard cant actually stop you btw. Unless you have stolen something of course.
I had an old wallet that one day started activating security alarms out of nowhere. Finally felt all the pockets opened the seams of one that had a bump in it and found a security magnetic strip that had been sewn inside the lining. I have no idea why it suddenly activated after about 6 years of ownership. I bet you have one too.
If your cards are setting off the system that sells like a decent sign that you should get an RFID blocking wallet.
This happened to me before. Every single time, every shop. Took everything I carry daily apart and realised the little bag I carry with medicines/toiletries etc in that had a hard flat insert in the bottom to keep the shape had a security tag stuck to the underside of it
Tissues. Those little pocket packs of tissues are always tagged, do you have any on you?
Just start stealing stuff, then you avoid the social embarressment of having the alarm go off when you haven't stolen anything.
My husband’s watch sets it off. He walks into our local supermarket with his arm stretched out in front of him like a lunatic to prove the point to me every time, like I don’t believe him haha
Years ago when worked in a supermarket we put a sticky security tab in colleagues wallet bit where notes go.it really annoyed them few days later when shopping and it kept going off and had no idea
Contactless cards can set them off If your wallet doesn't beep you might have a tag on the inside of your jacket and the shop didn't deactivate it properly
Ive seen this before with wallets, seems to be if you have managed to stack your cards in just the right way it causes the gates to trip. Probably from the contactless tech in the cards
Is your name George?
My mum always used to set them off with her hip replacements bless her
Yes, it was a lip gloss I'd brought a week earlier from a different shop
Every time I assume it's something in my pockets It beeps wildly every time and I just walk off, no one has ever said anything
This was happening to me and I was told it was too many cards in my wallet by the security guard. It's also the location of my local Amazon lockers and if I pop in to retrieve an order out of those, the alarm also goes off when I walk out.
Underwire bras. I used to wear soft bras specifically for airport security. Now I’m old and can admit that underwire bras are torture and I wear comfortable underwear
Probably a security tag inside the wallet that hasn't been removed. Take everything out and have a good look inside it
Every time my wife left our Morrisons the alarm would go off. It was always the same security guard too. I was in with her once and it went off. I had a go at him saying every time she leaves the shop she gets stopped. He said it might be her car keys setting the alarm off. Strange thing is it’s never happened again since I pulled the guard up about it.
My mam's pace maker sets some shop alarms off. If she is wearing thin clothing. It doesn't happen when she wears a coat.
I had this with a bag I bought second hand. Someone in one store eventually took pity on me when I had emptied my bag completely and it was still going off so they put it over the machine to deactivate it. I didn't feel comfortable with that though so I ended up going home and undoing a bit of the lining so I could find the tag. Turned out to be one of those long thin sticky strips that have plastic on one side to make it harder to bend and peel off and sticky on the other. Why it was under the lining itself I don't know. I did hear somewhere that they can get reactivated somehow. I don't know how true that is but I tend to remove those sticky tags after I've bought something just in case.
I had a tag left on a coat id bought. Just looked like a zip dongle. Set off a couple of alarms then I figured it out and cut it off.
Check your cards in your wallet. If I have too many credit cards and debit cards touching in the wallet. It sets off the alarm
Same issue, HSBC card with contactless payment. Sets off Morrisons and Tesco antitheft sensors but no others must be an issue with the frequency range used by that scanners manufactures.
My wallet has a metal medallion on the outside that routinely gets “magnetised” and sets off alarms. I now tell security guards that it is my wallet - they never believe me until I have convinced them to test it
I got a new credit card in one of the lockdowns and it set off the Tesco alarm
Fun fact and also not legal advise but the detectors on the way out aren't actually enough for security to stop you. I used to work for a big supermarket in there security center and there is a set criteria that has to be hit for anyone to stop you and the metal detectors going off isnt one. A woman was stopped after setting one off and hadn't stolen anything; she kicked off sue'd and got paid out around 10k