Doing a story for my college's newspaper

[gixxer32404]

I had already searched. I found one screenname of a 44 yoa male.



But anyway "Normalguy" if a person came to best buy and asked "Are all the camera's working?" What's your schedule?", How often do you view the security cams?"

Would u be suspicious??

[NormalDude]

I'll clear something up. The article I'm planning on writing (I haven't started writing it yet since the deadline isn't for another 2 months) is on financial markets and the credit crisis. I was doing some rough outlining of the article and trying to figure out what points I wanted to cover when I thought it might be a good idea to explore changes not only in banks lending practices, but also in the way they have been securing their capital. Seeing as how banks are basically going into defensive-mode when it comes to lending money (since they have such low capital reserves) I thought it would be interesting to go a little deeper into the issue. But, I don't think I'll devote anymore than a couple of paragraphs to the security aspect of the article. However, that doesn't mean I can just imprudently throw any information I find on the internet into this thing. I still need to find good sources and evidence even if it's just a couple paragraphs in an article that's probably going to be 2 to 3 thousand words. I already know enough about financial markets, but I don't know much about how banks deal with their money (sure, I work LP, but that doesn't help me much). I didn't think it was necessary to explain the greater scope of the article - credit-default swaps, leverage, capital reserves, globalisation, the commercial paper market, etc. - in a security forum. I was just trying to see what information is out there pertaining to the area of knowledge I had no knowledge of.

I don't buy this guy at all. Even if he's taking a Criminology class then it seems strangely weird that he would focus on only one aspect of such a vast field. Hope I'm wrong but don't think so this time.

I guess I could be some criminal mastermind trying to get information from a public forum. But, if that was the case, I would probably go through the trouble to use a proxy based somewhere in China so that the Admins here wouldn't know my IP address.

I don't feel comfortable giving out my information on a public forum (or even a private forum). But, I might PM some of you (who offered to help) with that info.

Anyway, like davis said, it seems like a lot of this informaton is so hard to find simply because it's supposed to be kept secret. Even if I do somehow find this information, I think it would be unwise for me to publish it.

[SecTrainer]

I'll clear something up. The article I'm planning on writing (I haven't started writing it yet since the deadline isn't for another 2 months) is on financial markets and the credit crisis. I was doing some rough outlining of the article and trying to figure out what points I wanted to cover when I thought it might be a good idea to explore changes not only in banks lending practices, but also in the way they have been securing their capital. Seeing as how banks are basically going into defensive-mode when it comes to lending money (since they have such low capital reserves) I thought it would be interesting to go a little deeper into the issue. But, I don't think I'll devote anymore than a couple of paragraphs to the security aspect of the article. However, that doesn't mean I can just imprudently throw any information I find on the internet into this thing. I still need to find good sources and evidence even if it's just a couple paragraphs in an article that's probably going to be 2 to 3 thousand words. I already know enough about financial markets, but I don't know much about how banks deal with their money (sure, I work LP, but that doesn't help me much). I didn't think it was necessary to explain the greater scope of the article - credit-default swaps, leverage, capital reserves, globalisation, the commercial paper market, etc. - in a security forum. I was just trying to see what information is out there pertaining to the area of knowledge I had no knowledge of.


I guess I could be some criminal mastermind trying to get information from a public forum. But, if that was the case, I would probably go through the trouble to use a proxy based somewhere in China so that the Admins here wouldn't know my IP address.

I don't feel comfortable giving out my information on a public forum (or even a private forum). But, I might PM some of you (who offered to help) with that info.

Anyway, like davis said, it seems like a lot of this informaton is so hard to find simply because it's supposed to be kept secret. Even if I do somehow find this information, I think it would be unwise for me to publish it.

Let's clear something else up - it will make you a better journalist. When I and others suggested that you use sources that are available on the Internet, we were not suggesting that you do so uncritically. On the other hand you need to understand that there are exceedingly reliable resources available via the Internet as well. That is, they are perfectly good sources that merely happen to be available via the Internet. It is the journalist's job to find and evaluate such sources just as he would any other source he might find in any other way. If you poo-poo "Internet sources" in general you'll simply be committing the opposite error of accepting them without questioning.

Obviously, there is a potential qualitative difference between information you might find on "Uncle Bob's Blog" and the Wall Street Journal web site. On the other hand, Uncle Bob might be the world's expert on his subject while the WSJ reporter didn't do his homework and made all sorts of errors. That's why I say there is a potential difference that requires you to elucidate the value of the information and the credibility of the source. The Internet is a vast and often unbelievably valuable resource and should be used properly, the operational words being BOTH "used" and "properly". A number of journalism classes, books and innumerable professional journalism articles address this subject, incidentally. Other sources regarding the proper use of the Internet can be found in within the publications of other domains like library science and open source intelligence or "OSI". Can you guess where you'll find many of these articles? That's right...on the Internet! There's lots of good stuff on the Internet and almost any properly-conducted journalistic effort these days will involve an Internet search. A journalist ignores the Internet at his peril.

[cosmiccastaway]

I am a messenger for an armored car company in the midwest. And I will give you an honest straight forward answer because It won't compromise any thing: I have no idea how much money I have in my truck at any one time. I don't want to know. I pick up sealed bags of money; some have the totals on them, some do not. I don't keep track of how much money is in each bag or on each pickup. I just make sure the bag numbers match the numbers on the tickets. If there are one bags, two bags, whatever, I just want to make sure I have everything I sign for, no more, no less. And so the amount can vary depending on the day and the types of business I pick up. Now routes assigned to do ATM replenishment are handled differently, and since I don't want that job, I don't know what their liability procedures are. And once the pickups are turned into our vault, once again the bag numbers are verified and put in larger sealed bags, and then sent to the appropriate banks. AT no time do we ever count the money. That's between the bank and its customer. If you need a dollar amount, the largest amount I ever picked up was at a retailer at Christmas time. I picked up 12 bags totaling over $750K (verified on two tickets). But mostly it's much less than that at any one stop.

Hope this provides you with some guidance.

[K.Dubb]

Largest pickup I've ever done was over 50 million cash. No it wasn't a regular scheduled run. It's what we call a special. That's all the info I can share.

[Chucky]

Normal Guy please don't take our replies personally. In fact just the fact that we are so guarded with our answers should be a plus for the security of the countries money flow. If I were you and we gave you all kinds of answers that could jeopardize the flow of money or the safety of our armed car brothers then I would be very offended with us.

A similar thing happened 6 months to a year ago when a guy came on and right out of the gate started asking about Nuclear power plant security. He could have been very sincere and meant no malice but the fact is that many folks outside our community can read our comments and that became a sticking point with that guy and he left. Our loss? His loss? Stick around if you will as there will be many other subjects that we will be able to answer for you.

[tanko]

A similar thing happened 6 months to a year ago when a guy came on and right out of the gate started asking about Nuclear power plant security. He could have been very sincere and meant no malice

Was it the guy in this video, more specifically at 03:10, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McB9tsabPn0?

[Chucky]

Was it the guy in this video, more specifically at 03:10, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McB9tsabPn0?

Funny but true. The Indian Motorcycle museum in Springfield Ma a fantastic place has no windows and a sign on the only entrance. If you attempt to bring a camera into this building then be prepared to eat and digest it. Photos absolutely forbidden.
That's the tac that the Nuke plant should have taken no matter how you are dressed.

[Ewfr 'Gomulee]

Was it the guy in this video, more specifically at 03:10, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McB9tsabPn0?

Nice link, bloody funny.

And 'NormalDude',

Given the nature of Cash in transit you won't find much detailed information, routes, vehicles, numbers of vehicles used, tracking system details such as the make of the tracking system or model are all, generally held in high secrecy.

The best most of us could offer would be to say, you couldn't break into a van and take the money and even that is probably stretching it.
Another would be, the guards don't open the doors or windows for ANYONE! but then most people know that anyway.
In the UK they hold the same policy.

Cheers,

[Curtis Baillie]

"NormalDude" has not been on the site since 3/27/2009.