This troper recalls a story; a man walks into an electronics store and asks the manager to help him load a big-screen TV into his truck. Only after the man drives off does the manager realize he never paid.

This same troper is rather frustrated by how often people assume she knows what's going on or knows things (bizarre things, sometimes), simply because she is smart and somewhat mature.

This troper is fond of this tactic. His most notable moments:

He works out at the gym in his old school, and still gets a student's discount despite now going to school at another college. Of course, it helps that he uses his old PE uniforms as workout clothes and even uses his old high school lanyard for his mobile phone. There was even a time he still got to come and go freely at his old high school due to wearing the pants from his old uniform.

At his college, which is notably paranoid when it comes to security, he once snuck a friend (who is an outsider) inside and even passed him off to his class as a new student. Conversely, when it was ''his'' turn to go to his friend's school, he easily passed for a student since he had that school's lanyard.

Being a security officer has its perks, including getting just about anywhere you want to just by asking a staff member and saying you're "on patrol," or even better, saying you got a report of suspicious activity. I've even gotten out of telling-offs by claiming to be on patrol when I was just jaw-jacking with friendly staff.

While this troper was volunteering at a church, a man walked into the main entrance. He then walked into the staff room, got himself a cup of coffee, a donut, and a pen. Then he walked out, crossed the street, and left the premises. It wasn't until after he was gone that everyone realised he didn't work there, and that nobody knew who the heck he was.

This editor would like to make it clear that he doesn't own a yellow jacket left over from a former job that he wears to appear more official when setting up practical jokes. Such scandalous rumours will not be tolerated.

Likewise, ''this'' editor most certainly does ''not'' use his ROTC uniform to wander wherever he pleases on school grounds, and is deeply insulted that you would suggest such a thing.

This editor would like to point out that he once achieved the same effect, wholly by accident, simply by wearing an LAPD t-shirt and then putting on an unzipped rain jacket over it. The rain jacket was orange; apparently all you need for instant authority is something bright orange and an actual organization in authority's logo. Note that this happened in ''Philadelphia'' and people ''still'' mistook me for a police officer.

This troper can one-up this: Walking ''very'' quickly wearing a shirt labeled 'NPC' in typical yellow FBI font and keeping one hand over her bulging (with a DS, a cell phone and an iPod, no less) jacket pocket got them to the front of a line for the PS3. This troper still can't believe no one looked closely enough to recognize the acronym and shank me.

Why would they? They'd miss out on the vital plot information you might dispense later.

Besides, you were clearly a scripted event.

This editor feels the need to report that Mexican Law seems to be a bit more ''GenreSavvy'', since it is a federal offense to wear clothes that resemble police or military outfits, unless you are an active member. This editor knows because he knows of a case where a 17 year old spent some time in jail because of it.

If Mexican law is more genre-savvy, then why is that country filled with drug cartels that make threats to the police forces repeatedly?

Different genre, duh.

Apparently in the United States, it's illegal to wear an actual uniform when not military, but it's okay to wear stuff that looks like it. Interesting little loophole...

In the United States the item in question must have rank insignia and/or a service tape (i.e. "US AIR FORCE") to legally be considered a uniform.

That said, one can still be arrested for impersonation - in uniform or not.

Since there have been cases of organized robbers robbing car and bus travelers disguising themselves as military inspections over some highways, this troper is not surprised by this law.

Notice, however, that such restrictions only apply to uniforms and emblems ''currently in use''. That said, you can legally get away with this if you only paint your car black, put a civilian yellow light bar, some civilian white strobes, a British or French siren, and wear a Norwegian police uniform.

This troper works for the housing department of a very large university. He owns a namebadge. When concerts and other events occur on campus the security guys also have namebadges. The two groups of namebadges are, for all intents and purposes, identical. Nevertheless, any claims that you have sighted this troper at events he did not pay to attend will be hotly contested.

This troper's grandfather got into all kinds of interesting places, the first time or two accidentally, after being mistaken for a member of the press because of his very expensive professional camera.

This troper was born with a unique-to-his-area birthmark, which has rendered his left side a deep red from his hand down to his chest. It comes in handy for falsifying medical emergencies, allowing him to completely halt substitute teachers (and even some regular teachers) and their entire lesson plans, as well as enact the occasional BatmanGambit hinging on a LittlestCancerPatient-style routine. Nobody dares question you when they think your arm's about to fall off and kill you.

This troper knows a couple of people who have made their way rapidly through a large crowd simply by waving a driving license in the air and shouting "SEE? ID!"

Proven yesterday by Da_Nuke, only with a driving license from the neighboring state, because Mexicans are much more Main/GenreSavvy on this regard.

In this troper's first aid training, he was told that taking charge of an emergency situation and trying to get someone to phone for help is especially important. Rather justified though, since most people would probably want to help, though lacking first aid training would just cause them to freeze up, and sending someone off to phone for emergency responders would allow them to help with a much lower chance of the risk of lethal failure.

This troper's lifeguard training had him tell the parent(s) of the child to do it using the pool phone so operators could trace the call if they couldn't get the address correct. Of course, dispatch didn't have such capabilities, but the parents didn't know that and didn't need to see their child in such a situation.

Entirely off-topic, but how long ago ''was'' this? This troper works in a Police/Fire/911 dispatch center - they now can, and they now ''do'' find addresses based on the number a call comes in from.

Re; above. Not around Tampa Bay they cannot. I tried reporting a busted (it was drooping) power lane to the police and I had to find the address of the middle school it was next to. After telling them the name. The cops could not find the location of the school based on the name. Bonus points; the school was next to a police sub station.

This different troper's lifeguard training had him keep a big binder in the office with the pool's address on it to achieve this effect. However, to get parents to step in the office and have their children teach them that RealLifeIsn'tRealistic in terms of CPR, we told them that they were supposed to make the call in case dispatch needs medical knowledge about their child.

This troper's school is generally pretty lenient about students in the hallway during classtime, but when they have hallsweeps, they crack down ''hard.'' One time, during a day of hallsweeps, my animation teacher didn't feel like writing out a pass for a student, and instead handed him a school camera case (which has a bright and prominent identification label on it) and instructed him to just put it around his neck and act like he was allowed to be walking in the hallways. While other students in the same hallway were rounded up and given Saturday detentions, the student with the camera case went unchallenged.

This troper went to school once when there was costume-day (every last grade student goes to school in a topical costume for the day, for example Safari day everyone is an animal or hunter). Today was Timetravel day and I had a suit an most of the staff mistook me for a teacher. Best part, I hadn´t told you yet: My suit was my Music Meister costume complete with green sheet music, fedora, feather and CD enhanced cane.

Please tell me that someone went as The Doctor (especially if it was 5).

^ Agreed, but I just love the fact that you went as the ''Music Meister''. Will you marry me?

This amateur photographer has coined a term - Lens Length Priority - to describe the respect I get just for putting a large lens on my SLR. If you have an imposing camera lens, everybody assumes you're on official business. People have actually stepped out of the way to let me pass to the front of crowds at museums, parades, concerts, and zoos. One parent scolded her teenager for ''walking near me'' while I was taking a couple snapshots of museum exhibit. I've also been confused with the official photographer at a couple of occasions. Children experiencing LLP look at my wife in awe ("Gasp! Is she a model?") when I'm taking photos in public places. It's really quite strange.

Plausible from her appearance, though, right?

Well, his lens is the lengtiest.

This troper's had similar responses to the 500mm catadioptric lens he uses for bird photography. The irony? Any professional will take one look at it and recognize it as the cheapest super-telephoto lens available.

The celebrity technique, one person dresses outlandishly, the two most muscular in plain black suits no ties, and a fourth person carries a clipboard and looks nervous, suddenly all the doors are open, ideally the celebrity must behave as though they are slightly drunk and assume anyone walking up to them wants a photograph.

This troper thinks that a PDA or iPhone, a headset and a bag obviously containing a laptop work best, especialy when calling out random names and times to the "celeb", who then responds with an affirmation or a slightly changed time, which is then repeated into the headset: "mumble mumble, Catherine's at sunday 13:00?" "hmmm, 13:30" "(into headset) She is at Catherine's from 13:30 till 15:00, taking traffic into account that means we'll get there at 15:45 at best so keep that timeslot open". Ideal combinations are a female "celeb" prefferably in a dress and sunglasses. One male casual guard and another male guard who gives Death Stares to everybody getting near and one male "technician" with regular glasses(rectangular ones work best). For the best effects, make sure one of the "guards" has a drivers license and when your crew makes landfall somewhere, have the assistant jump out first and chatter into his headset, followed by the driving causual guard, who helps the star get out who is then immediately accosted by the assistant with a pair of appointments while the serious guard gets out on his own and surveys the surroundings. The assistant can be switched ou for a slightly eccentric female advisor constantly giving good advice to the star if you are short on males. Male stars don't seem to work that well, neither do female assistants and female guards has never worked at all for us. Bonus point for the assistant/advisor to wear an ID card as if they just came from a press conference while the guards bring simple nametags and the celeb doesn't offer identification at all, acting as if everybody already knows her.

One day, in this troper's Psychology 101 class, the instructor took two students out of the classroom. They then returned and started to ask the other students to do slightly unusual things. Which we did.

The best way to get a certain someone to answer a compromising question is by masquerading it as a survey. Bonus points if you do it at the ITESO and claim it's "for Statistics 101". As done by Da_Nuke.

Likewise, if you want to stay inside the campus after closing hours, just claim to be an electronics, computer science, telecommunications or IT student. After many years of pulling all-nighters at the labs, our department boss told the guards to give us full access to all the facilities anywhere, anytime. Now imagine the "possibilities" of these privileges, IfYouKnowWhatIMean...

This troper, on AprilFoolsDay, no less, got several teachers to sign a petition to ban "dihydrogen monoxide" by explaining its "dangers" in alarming-sounding language. (He didn't have the guts to try it on his chemistry teacher.) Among them:

It is a major component of acid rain

It can cause severe burns in its gaseous state

It can kill you if accidentally inhaled. (Approximately 450 people in the United States die of hydrogen hydroxide inhalation each year!)

It forms a dangerous explosive when combined with certain metals.

This Troper always saw it notated as dihydrogen monoxide. :\ Same difference!

It's actually more accurate, and more dangerous sounding, to describe it as Hydrogen Hydroxide, because bases are usually something hydroxide, and acids are Hydrogen something. Most people immediately associate 'Hydroxide' with a base.

Monoxide sounds pretty dangerous too, everybody knows that (carbon) monoxide gas is deadly.

Hydroxylic Acid is a personal favourite.

Just go to http://dhmo.org/

Here in Guadalajara, put a vinyl stripe in your car, get yourself a siren, turn it on in the middle of the traffic, turn on your flashers, and see how everyone makes way for you! I've seen quite a bit of people doing this in the city. Granted, it's illegal as noted before, and in fact, since Mexicans are much more Main/GenreSavvy in this regard, some people ''do'' make a point of only believing them if they have their blue-and-red light bars on, but many people still believe it.

Americans are being encouraged -not- to believe the blue-and-reds if the area is not full of people. We're supposed to be allowed to slowly drive to a place that has lots of people. Then we can be arrested safely.

This troper had a former roommate who drove an old Crown Victoria, and enjoyed seeing how many people he could get to slow down by pulling over to one side of the road. It should be noted this was in Vermont, and he had Masssachusetts plates.

This troper had a friend who drove a Crown Victoria and ''complained'' about people doing that.

This Troper's father owns a Crown Vic and loves it. It's quite funny to watch people slow down and actually obey speed limits.

This Vermont Troper desperately hopes that no one fell for that, seeing as VT municipal plates are Red with white letters, not white with red letters. Oh, and 'cause Crown Vic's are outdated, even here. Oh, did you count? I'd love the stats.

This troper's classmate has a Crown Vic, and has gotten out of a speeding ticket because of it. A cop went to pull him over, so he pulled over to the side of the road. The car in front of him assumed he was a plainclothes policeman and pulled over, too. The cop assumed he was a plainclothes policeman pulling over a civilian and kept going.

This toper's father is a ham radio operator and always have lots of antennas on the car roof which makes surronding cars slow down.

Ask the average female to sign a petition banning women's suffrage while you've got someone filming it "for a documentary". Go ahead, try it.

In the interest of equality, this works just as well on men. Heh.

This Troper has seen this work wonders on a Naruto fan forum. It wasn't even in a designated "spam zone". Though, the troll in question deliberately spelled it as "sufferage" to confuse the easily lead.

This troper is quite familiar with the Air Force (being an AF Brat), including their [=BDUs=], Camos, and Dress uniforms, and it helps most of the retired military make the mistake of donating the latter to goodwill. Of course I can wear my mother's things, and I had as an experiment in the mall once. It's amazing how much a uniform will clear a crowd.

A friend of mine is in Air Force Cadets, and realised what his uniform looked vaguely like. On the train he approached two arguing people and opened with the line "So just what's problem here?"

At least you guys did not train as a police cadet. That's why all police cadet uniforms (at least in my country) must be returned after the end of police cadet service, and off-duty police cadets are not allowed to wear the uniform. Only the plastic (generic black) name tag can be retained.

This troper does IT and network deployment. Apparently if you look scruffy while wearing semi-professional clothing (pants or skirts that needed to be ironed a week ago, button-down shirts or blouses missing a button) while carrying 8P8C and multimode fiberoptic terminators and cat5e cable, you will get you pretty much anywhere you need to be, regardless of what clearance you do or do not have. Do be warned that includes places you do not need or want to be. A radio antenna dish works wonders, too, if you need to get toward the roof.

Alternatively, carrying a Fluke tester (or even a cheap USB cable tester), muttering about pvc wiring, and making panicked strings of curses under your breath before shouting "everyone out" is a remarkably effective way to clear an area, although you typically want to have a few strands of older PVC wiring to plant near an air vent.

This troper got back at a friend she had fallen out with by buying a few trashy paperbacks, scribbling in the front: "Urgently needed. If found please call(ex-friend's phone number)" and leaving them around London. The victim had to change his number, but he saw the funny side and is now on speaking terms with the troper again. She's just dreading what he might do to her in revenge.

This Troper (Dialga) once rode in car with 2 other teens and was pulled over. When the driver revealed that we were going for clinical time at a hospital the cop let us go. We were all wearing white dress shirts, dark pants and we had stethoscopes around our necks.

This troper has realized a simple fact of life. If you want to get into any building, at any time, all (males) need is a suit, and a labcoat. No one ever stops someone who looks like they know what they're doing in a labcoat. The Lab Coat - Urban Camouflage!

The women's equivalent is usually a conservatively cut skirt suit with hair in a ''slightly'' messy chignon or french roll, and carrying several manila folders/envelopes. Glasses help but are not required.

She has never - yet - used this information for anything other than its face-value purpose, but this troper has discovered that people will tell you ''anything'' if you just say "I'm researching a novel." Sometimes they start volunteering far more than you even ''asked'' for. (There was an establishment I was afraid to go into after a while because the security guard kept coming up to me and telling me how to commit various crimes, when I'd only asked about how to disable a burglar alarm...)

That would be Main/ItsForABook, a subtrope of the Bavarian Fire Drill.

This troper has been able to get through crowds by yelling "OUT OF THE WAY! I'M GOING TO BE A DOCTOR!!!"

Ever considered that maybe they were moving simply because you were walking towards them yelling "get out of the way"?

I think replacing "doctor" with "mother/father" would work much, much better. If the above troper is wrong, of course.

This troper purchased an ID holder that could be worn around the neck so that he wouldn't have to constantly fish for it out of his pocket. In some neighborhoods apparently, that automatically makes you a police officer.

In others, this makes you a music store employee.

Wear it to Wal-Mart or K-Mart and you will be constantly harassed by people who want to know where the canned peas/generic paper towels that are on sale this week/motor oil are.

I get this without a badge when I go shopping. I combine trips, so I'm usually wearing my nice church clothes.

I get this by standing in Wal-Mart or Zellers, but only in the Video Game department. Apparently, moving back and forth along the displays muttering about the pros and cons of different games while deciding which one to buy is an invitation to ask if I work there, despite my complete lack of the store's uniform. If I actually worked there, I bet I wouldn't get asked at all.

This troper's uni has a nationally ranked equestrian program. Turns out that scuffed boots and half-chaps/spurs (breeches optional) are a pass out of most tardies, the occasional late assignment, missed classes when used judiciously, and cutting in line in the dining hall. She wonders just how many students have grabbed leather boots and headed for the nearest convenient dirt patch.

This troper has a friend who crashed at a rather well-known science-fiction convention for multiple days by using colored electrical tape to change his 1-Day Pass into a 3-Day Pass. When he finally got confronted by one of the security guard on his way out of the dealer's area, said friend smiled widely and whispered "Thank goodness you stopped me! You're the first person all day to look at the day, not just the badge color!" He then flashed his work ID, gave his company name as that of a private security firm that had been hired to test the volunteer security and then took the guard's name so that they would know who to report as actually doing their job. He then left the convention, deciding not to push his luck any further... but happy that he had conned his way out of being caught with style.

Subverted. A thief entered our workplace, a university building open to the public, in broad daylight and attempted to abscond with a laptop and various goods. When stopped before he could leave, he simply claimed that he was here to meet a coworker to discuss a federal project relevant to the grant but that, since she wasn't in, he would just come back later, taking the name from the cubicle he had just robbed. Said coworker proceeded to send someone else to get her out of the meeting she was in and insisted on waiting with the would-be thief. He got caught.

This troper's dad once got into a building site after work had finished for the day (he was driving past and on a whim decided to have a look around) thanks to his work overalls and a hardhat. He walked past the security guard, greeting him with something along the lines of 'Hi mate. Just need to go and check something', spent several minutes nosing around, and walked back out again, saying goodnight to the security guard as he left.

This troper recently went to New Caledonia on a school exchange trip, and was repeatedly mistaken for the teacher by another school group on the same trip - to the extent where I made up some utterly ridiculous stories about teaching to them, and ''they just believed me''. Made even more hilarious by the fact that our actual teacher has a large beard and ''looks'' like a teacher, which seemed to be constantly overlooked.

My Sunday routine is to go to church in my usual outfit of khaki pants, a striped shirt, and a red tie. After church, my family and I go shopping on the way home. And I've lost count with how many times other customers mistook me for an employee of whatever store I was in. And under none of those occasions did the uniform of the employees even remotely resemble what I always wear. I didn't even have a name-badge or anything.

The exact same thing has happened to this troper.

This troper works in a mall and cannot count the number of times he's been stopped in other stores when he doesn't take his tag off during his break.

When I used to work at a movie theater, if I wore my uniform anywhere else, I would inevitably be mistaken as an employee. Bear in mind that said uniform is a maroon vest - a fashion trend that hasn't seen the light of day anywhere other than the theaters in about 50 years.

This troper is in the habit of wearing black clothing (probably a very rare habit amongst all the other tropers here), the number of times I've been asked for the menu, or just for a latte is... embarrassing.

This Troper wears his student ID on a lanyard so he doesn't lose it. Whenever shopping, it's amazing the number of times everyone mistakes me for an employee.

Tales from my inlaws: after your country suffers a military coup, you can get great service at any restaurant by digging out your old military school uniform. This is a wonderful way to make sure that first date with your dream girl goes well, unless her pro-democracy father sees you. Then it's a little awkward... for the rest of your life.

Sorry, but serves him right.

I hope you mean the boyfriend, not the father.

Customers at the flea market tend to behave when a nearby vendor decides to wear his bought at the store 'SECURITY' t-shirt. Yes, flea market customers misbehave.

Customers that don't behave?: Oh yeah. You ''can'' find them at the market.

If you're playing Capture the Flag over a large area, with plenty of hiding places, and a large group of people who don't know you very well, it's surprisingly easy to get very close to the flag, simply by acting like you're on the opposing team.

This was practically an official part of the game in middle school for this troper. And it was a small school (60 students)! It worked best on camping trips/overnights. The tricky bit was trying to convince people you were on their team before they tagged you. Saying, "Don't tag me! I'm on your team!" would have kind of given it away.

The entire game for the Spy

In summer camp, this troper would occasionally avoid being tagged for awhile by pretending to have already been tagged, allowing me pretty much free passage to the jail to free captured teammates. Doesn't work for getting close to the flag, since while the jail is always far away from the neutral zone, the flag is usually even further away.

I would do the same thing in a game that was like capture the flag. Some fool tried to pull off the trick where you pretend that you're actually on the enemies team...even thoough the game was ''an organized P.E. game with people wearing clothing that was the colour of your team.''

This troper can occasionally get people on the other team to pass a ball to him on basketball... thank god for twins

An unintentional example: this troper's favorite professor in undergrad had a survey course in which he required students to watch certain films. In case they weren't able to get them, he would show them in a large lecture hall. Of course, pretty much everyone in the department would go, because they were cult hits within the field, but the freshmen (and non-majors) didn't know that. One evening, the professor was running late, so this troper and a few others from the department tried to get everyone sitting around to play appropriately themed versions of hangman and pictionary. Everyone but the regulars got all squirmly and uncomfortable, like a discussion section faced with a popquiz. It turns out that they assumed - since we had just gotten up and taken over the chalkboard - that we were [=TAs=] and that they were being graded on it.

When this troper turned up to her first chemistry practical for the year, the instructor had not yet arrived. I put on my lab coat and safety glasses, took out a notebook, all the usual stuff, as more students started arriving... then this woman approached me out of the blue and started talking about class schedules and asking if it was okay if some of the next-door students sat in on my class. It took me a few minutes to realise that she thought I was the instructor, presumably because I was the only one in safety gear yet... odd, considering I'm usually mistaken for a 16-year-old.

This troper has found that an open notebook and his Press hat will get just about anyone to give him whatever information he needs. As it happens, this troper ''is'' a reporter and has so far only used his powers for good.

Is it a ball cap, or an actual fedora with a press card? Because if it's the latter, that's all kinds of awesome.

Not ''quite'' a fedora, but a straw hat in the same style, with a little laminated card just saying "PRESS" paper clipped to it.

Sometimes, all you have to do is... nothing. This troper volunteered for the Obama campaign, helping by tallying sheets for the phone bank folks. This resulted in, at various times, my being the only one standing up, the only one not on a phone, or the only one doing absolutely nothing (because I was waiting for more sheets from the people who were ''actually'' in charge). I was continually assumed by newcomers - and sometimes even not-so-newcomers - to be in charge. Sort of a "one of these things is not like the others" variant.

Tropers/{{Raekuul}} has fallen for this, apparently. Just look at his wiki page.

This Troper can attest that sometimes it's just fun to put that up there, since it's obviously a joke.

This editor owns a pair of very businesslike black slacks and leather business-y shoes, which he likes wearing with a white button-up t-shirt and a loose black tie. He also carries a shoulder-bag with a clipboard in it. If he needs to get through a crowd in a hurry, he does up his tie properly and pulls out his clipboard. People promptly began scurrying out of my way in a crowded shopping center. Did I mention that at the time ''I was sixteen years old''?

Many years ago, when Of Steel}} this troper was a young child, video games were played standing up, and required a pocket full of small, flat, round, shiny things called quarters. Going with mom and dad to a restaurant he liked, he noticed the familiar ''PacMan'' game in the lobby wasn't there. After getting over the initial shock, this troper learned that the game had been stolen, of all things. Yes, it actually did happen, he was told; three men walked in one day, unplugged the game, picked up the whole thing, and simply walked out with it. Apparently it didn't occur to anyone working there that day until the men were already long gone that they might not have been authorized to do that. (After all, who would dare steal something ''that'' big and heavy that didn't have its own wheels?)

A similar incident occurred in a previous school of this troper. An overhead projector was stolen from a classroom, apparently in broad daylight. Granted, the classroom was probably empty at the time since no one witnessed it, but leaving the building - not to mention the campus - without running into anyone would be next to impossible. Therefore, anyone the thief might have encountered must've not thought it unusual. Then again, a couple of fellow students in the same school once lugged an iMac halfway through the campus. Not one person stopped them to ask about their intentions (they had permission, but the other people had no way of knowing).

This troper's grandmother was able to walk into a crowded Barnes and Noble with a plastic bag in her hands, put the plastic bag over a display poster figure of Captain Jack Sparrow, and walk out the front door with it. The security guard even smiled and nodded at her. This troper can only assume it was because nice old ladies in their late sixties don't tend to shoplift cardboard Johnny Depps that ''aren't even for sale''. She drove home with Captain Jack in the backseat and gave him to this troper's mother as a gag gift. He still hangs out in her room.

This Troper's mother once told her a story about how, when she was a little girl, the piano from their town hall was stolen in broad daylight, and no-one intervened because the men were wearing overalls, and therefore must have been on official business of some kind.

This Troper has a penchant for black clothes and has graduated from jeans'n'tshirt combos that have dominated his dresser since highschool. He now prefers slightly classier and a tad more formal clothes (like turtlenecks, sports jacket, etc.) and is constantly believed to be one of the waitstaff whenever he goes to a higher-end restaraunt. He has thus far not abused this power, but the urges still tempt...

This troper remembers reading about an incident where a man appeared in the midst of a flood disaster and started issuing orders. For several days houses were evacuated and emergency services personnel moved willy-nilly on his orders…until it was discovered he was an escaped mental patient. Needless to say, proverbial heads rolled.

But did he do a good job?

Couldn't have been worse than Michael Brown.

At this troper's college a thief managed to abscond with several hundred dollars and an I-Pod from a fraternity house simply by wandering around the house saying she was looking for someone and checking drawers when nobody was looking. ''She even brought her baby along.'' This had a somewhat happy ending, as the house's inhabitants noticed things were missing shortly after she left and managed to intercept her on the sidewalk as she was walking off.

This troper went to a tech school, and was part of the Drafting Department. Since the drafters were all good kids, we could walk the halls and never a single teacher would ever ask us for a pass, or what we where doing. Saw us moving stuff? We'd been asked too. Saw us breaking the rule of not going between shop and academic wings? We had a good reason. Then again, we got to keep this privilege since no one abused it...so not so sure how much it counts. Heck, we even had a saying. "Pass? I'm wearing it."

This troper would also like to note that he's also been been given the admin password to the entire school network and the master key to the school on occasion.

This Troper, while in college, would often use the computers in unused classrooms instead of the ones in labs, since I prefer darkness and solitude while on the computer (the labs get rather noisy). Almost every time a teacher or students came in to start the class, they would assume I was one of the IT technicians. Especially as I had some strange hardware (a flash drive, or later a USB hard drive) plugged into the computer...

Just giving people orders is usually enough, if you look like it's adequatley urgent, at least for some people. This Troper has managed this in [=LARPs=], where he bossed around with some of his comrades and an SUPERIOR.

This Troper's father once repossessed an expensive piece of equipment that the renter was refusing to pay for or send back to the rental agency by simply walking into the office, matter-of-factly informing the secretary that he was a repairman there to "check the machine", and then saying "it needs to go to the shop", boxing it up, and wheeling it out. Subverted in that he was actually ''telling the truth''. He was indeed a repairman and it did indeed have to go back to the shop -- because it hadn't been paid for.

This troper often accidentally triggers inversions of these. Ninety percent of her wardrobe is made up of dark shirts and black or khaki slacks. I cannot count the times I have been mistaken for staff at local stores, from Wal-Mart to the movie theatre, and even the KFC where my mother works. Customers ask me all the time for help, staff asks me about, well, staff things...Even my mother mistook me for an employee under her once.

I hear you. Isn't it annoying that society at large seems to think that nicer casual clothes should only be worn if you're working?

This troper once survived a round of zombie tag just by acting like he'd already been turned: Chasing after known-humans & casually asking known-zombies (& status-unknown players) if they'd seen any humans recently.

This troper loves getting cover free entry; because I vaguely look like a musician, have musician friends, people just assume I'm either with the band or with ''a'' band or will be playing one of these days. So many times I just stride on in like I'm expected. One time the girl collecting money stopped me and asked, "Did I already stamp you?" I said, "Yes, on my forehead," and whipped up my bangs to show her...no stamp at all. She said, "Oh, okay. I'll stamp you again."

This one works with classical music as well. Most orchestras and choirs in the UK perform in black tie ("tux" to Americans), so if you turn up to a concert suitably dressed and look like you know what you're doing, you're unlikely to get stopped for a ticket. (This troper has used the trick lots of times at amateur concerts and a couple of times at professional ones.)

If This Troper doesn't feel like doing anything at tech crew, I will just pick up a lighting wrench, walk around quickly, and occasionally stop to stare at some hanging lights. Seeing as I actually am on lights, and lights is easily the most incomprehensible to those not in the know, it usually works.

This Troper does props for her school shows; when I don't feel like doing anything, or if I'm done setting up for the show and don't want to be dragged onto another job, I'll just grab my clipboard and stare at the prop tables, maybe reorganize them for a while.

I did the same thing. I worked more than about 75% of the crew, but if I ever needed a break, I'd stand in the prop closet, and look confused if anyone came in. People assumed I was doing ''something.''

This troper once worked for a tiny widdle magazine, and was issued a 'press pass' with the magazine name on it, printed on a home desktop and laminated in the office. Armed with a tiny Nikon Coolpix 3.0 megapixel camera amidst a sea of real press folk with huge zoom lenses, he managed to get into any press event required... Including once getting within ''melee distance'' of an important political bigshot. Amazing how easy it would be to pull off a (no escape intended) assassination...

This troper works in the horse industry. In certain portions of the country, horses are SeriousBusiness. I've gotten huge discounts at local retail stores and restaurants by showing up in breeches, field boots, and a polo shirt--which is the uniform of the fabulously wealthy and important. I also attended college (the first time) as a member of our varsity equestrian team, which racked up lots of wins in the national circuit. Showing up to class in breeches and boots was an easy way to duck out early or arrive late. ("Sorry, prof, I have riding practice..."). Of course, I never abused said privilege...

''Word.'' Except substitute Western for English. A cowboy hat, collared plaid shirt, jeans, boots, and spurs are very, ''very'' handy things to own.

This troper used to live in Burma (yeah). Once, when my family and I flew back into the country late at night, something happened with the wiring in our car and the horn got stuck 'On'. The traffic police all assumed that we were important and, ahem, organised things in our favour. We got home almost twice as fast as usual.

This troper once crashed an invitation-only dinner for the US Figure Skating Association after a tournament simply by showing up wearing a good suit, after the function had started, and waiting around outside the hotel door for someone else to finish their smoke break and head back in and then following them. If you're dressed for the occasion and you're not trying to sneak in ''before'' it started, then obviously you've been there all along, right? It worked so well that this troper's friend, who was dressed in a rumpled polo shirt and blue jeans, was able to walk right past the usher because he was obviously with a guest.

This troper is made of this trope. He cannot go anywhere without people assuming he's the one in charge, or at the very least one who knows what to do. In his previous job (now sadly laid off, as the company is going under) he managed to rack up: door codes to secure facilities, a passcard for the Federal Courthouse, passwords for administrative access to a number of companies' networks, and a fool-proof way to get into any bank's vault. It helps to be tall, have a deep voice, and speak commandingly with excellent diction. Oh, and glasses. People trust a man with glasses.

This troper doesn't abuse her non-sworn member police department badge (long story short? she's the Police/Fire/911 dispatch center worker from up the page), nope. She certainly doesn't use it, coupled with good posture and Nice Office-Casual Clothing, to get around her friends' school campuses without being followed and/or hounded by security. And she's ''definitely'' not planning on using it to sneak into an anime convention held near her hometown with the excuse of "official business". Or to do the same at her alma mater's football games this fall. No, she is ''far'' from sadistically gleeful at the possible uses of a real honest-to-god Police Department ID, providing she's never caught... as that would probably end in [[strike:tears]]''jail.''

Subversion: This troper, who has considered putting "I LOVE PRINGLES" at the top of his page, was once asked by his (now former) boss to put in some extra hours doing some stocking and cleaning and such (we were expecting the Regional Manager the next day), and said wearing my uniform wasn't required, since I wouldn't be working with customers. The company uniform was a navy blue polo shirt (with logo), black pants and black shoes. So, in my beat up jeans, Guinness t-shirt, baseball hat and worn-out boots, I think I managed to go about 5 minutes without a customer asking me for help. In a store that wasn't busy. Sometimes, customers are DUMB.

It probably had something to do with your cleaning and stocking and such.

This trope runs down the paternal side of this troper's family, although, somehow, it ended up in ''her'' as well. She's found that she can generally take charge of most situations by standing in the right way and saying things in the right tone of voice - but so can her father and grandfather. Situations involving all three of us are interesting...

This troper served as a conscript private in a western European army in his youth. When doing security guard training, the master sergeant told us that it was all right for us to hit any commissioned officer who tried to pull rank and walk past a guard. "Warn him first, and if he still doesn't stop, hit on the outside of the thigh with the rifle butt," was the sergeant's instruction, based on an order from the battalion commander. For some reason, the officers were always polite to the common soldiers on guard duty.

This troper, during his military service in the Swedish Air Force, once annoyed a Lieutenant (who had forgotten his ID) by refusing to let him enter. Irritatingly, an officer with ID turned up and vouched for him. Ah well.

Technically speaking, guards are considered to outrank anyone who's asking to be let in, specifically to avoid this.

A sad, and rather interesting example could be occurring in This Troper's hometown. Since it's rather small, everyone has had children arrive at their door asking for donations for "Jump Rope for Heart", which is ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin. However, no one really expects that a kid may not actually be a part of the program, but simply collecting money for themselves. Usually, the lack of forms and the fact that it's the wrong time of year are a giveaway.

This troper once managed to sneak into a comic book convention with a friend because we were both carring small stacks of comic books into the building where the convention was being held. The guard probably thought we were working for one of the guys in the dealer's room. I've also found that even if you don't have a pass, showing up in costume is a good way of making you seem like you "belong" at the convention, at least for a little while.

Well, almost every comic book convention here in Mexico City will allow you to go in for free as long as you are in a good-enough costume.

Having worked volunteer security for a weekend-long event which requires passes (wristbands) to remain on campus for an event, this troper plans on seeing how long she can avoid said security next year.

This troper's sister wanted to visit his newly opened university hostel. Unfortunately, the Prime Minister was in the building to formally open it. She got through his security by quickly waving her drivers' license and shouting "press pass!". They opened the ''key-card activated entrance'' for her. The Prime Minister's Security. To put this in perspective, they confiscated my cup of tea because I could splash it on him and ruin his shirt. Bavarian Fire Drills work people, and the proof is right there.

The game of Geocaching relies pretty heavily on this. Geocache containers are often hidden in plain sight, many of them are quite small, and searching for one in a high-traffic urban environment can be a real challenge. One Geocacher often wears a hard hat, safety orange vest with reflective stripes, and carries a clipboard while searching for the hidden containers. Highly visible, yet what he's doing escapes notice.

The first day of his senior year in high school, this troper wore a suit as he often does (because he feels like it). While he'd being confused for a teacher in the past (even by older students), actual teachers could generally tell the difference. Over the summer though, this troper had grown a beard, and decided to push his luck, so he went into school early, and walked into the staff room for a cup of coffee, made small talk with a couple of the new teachers, and one he'd never had, and even said hello to his old English teacher/new Vice Principle on the way out without getting caught.

This troper collects toys, and is often quite perturbed by the lack of new product on the shelves. Once, between Thanksgiving and Christmas, I walked boldly into the back of a well-known worldwide toy chain (think "giraffe") and went through the boxes to find the specific stuff I wanted. At least one employee saw me there, but since the clothes I was randomly wearing that day (black pants and a red shirt) matched up with the store's uniform, and this was the time of year when the store was full of new seasonal employees, all he did was say hello to me as we walked past. Considering that the toys I bought that day I never saw again at any other store, the Bavarian Fire Drill saved me a bundle over paying eBay prices.

This troper has been mistaken for a substitute teacher by her own classmate by simply wearing plain clothes and reading the newspaper that was on the actual teacher's desk. On a much more worrisome note, her German teacher told the class once about the time she was in a mall and a tornado warning came. A vendor with a microphone told everyone to run as fast as they could to the center of the mall (underneath a large glass dome). They all did, except for my teacher, who had experience with safety drills. She later walked by an actual security guard, who was saying into a walkie-talkie 'yes, I know they're all going to the most dangerous place in the mall'.

This troper, when in high school years ago, discovered that having a reputation as a "good kid", acting like you knew what you were doing and like you were supposed to be doing it, and casually ignoring anybody who didn't directly approach you were the keys to having the run of the place. I could go anywhere the teachers could go, commandeer unoccupied computers in classrooms (even to the point of carting them off), and basically break any rule that was meant for students and not teachers. Because of my reputation and casual attitude, almost everybody just assumed ''somebody'' had given me permission or instructions to do it, and nobody ever challenged me. Since graduation, I have used the same basic approach to getting my way at most of my work places.

This Troper gets away with a little ''too'' much at school. Since she is an all around good student and is never a discipline problem (Well, except for the occasional talking in class) no one suspects her of doing anything. She can walk the halls without a pass, arrive late for class without a problem (Granted, she rarely arrives late for class), and get away with using her computer for non academic purposes. She hasn't really pushed the boundaries on what she can do, but she's pretty sure she could get away with almost anything.

Similarly, this troper is almost universally known as a "good" (albeit odd) kid. In middle school, she was allowed to make up missed homework assignments on the basis that she "never" forgot assignments. Even in classes with "strict" homework rules (although she has lost this privilege in her slightly more GenreSavvy high school). On another note, this troper has a violent streak and tends to firmly whack people on the head if they irritate her. Once, when a guy made a crude comment about her breasts, she kicked him. Enough to bleed. When a teacher came over and demanded what she was doing, she retorted, "He was being a perv!" The teacher walked away and this troper suffered no repercussions. Never mind that ''fighting in self defense is grounds for suspension'' at her school.

Oh, Jesus, that ''No Tolerance'' crap?

At least the teacher did not follow rules just for the sake of following them.

This troper was another good kid, and agrees that it becomes a free pass for just about anything, once the reputation is made. Playing Warcraft II with another student during computer lab and walking out on a teacher's overly religious commentary on Dante's ''Inferno'' both happened with no consequences. In middle school, a bully decided to mess with him, and more or less just blocked his way down the hall (doing no worse because a teacher was nearby), until this troper, who'd been having a bad day to begin with for reasons that escape memory, grabbed the kid and shoved him across the hall, in full view of the teacher. The teacher had probably been preparing to step in, seeing as he was watching the incident - until the bully hit the lockers, at which point the teacher met this troper's eye, then turned around to face the other direction.

Likewise, simply by being polite and cheerful to their school's (legendarily strict, observant, and unreasonable) dean of students, this troper has gotten away with a wide variety of offences which would have led to anyone else getting detention or worse, right in front of them, in plain sight. It also helps a lot to never hide what you're doing, as that draws more attention than the activity itself.

This troper was much the same - the teachers trusted her and would let her get away with anything. Once she didn't study for a math test that was given by a subsitute teacher. At the end of the period, realizing she wouldn't get a good score, she walked out without handing it in. She figured her regular teacher would assume the sub had lost it and let her retake it when she was more prepared. The teacher actually just gave her an automatic 100%, assuming she would have gotten a perfect score or something close to it.

One of the same troper's teachers told her their admin password when she really did need to use a blocked website for a project, instead of going over and typing it himself. She memorized it.

This troper has a similar story. Her teacher ''adores'' her, while simultaneously is fed up with another girl in my class who is constantly talking/texting during class. It helps that we a)sit right next to each other, and b)have the same first name and last initial. One day, the substitute caught me reading manga on my phone and confiscated it, leaving a note for the teacher about it. I just told her it was the troublemaking "Jane D." that the sub must've mistaken me for. Being a teacher's pet has its advantages.

This troper's school, wanting to prevent the kind of problems that could occur on an open campus high school, instituted a new policy two years ago requiring all faculty and students to wear an ID on a lanyard, which were color-coded for all four years. The ID tended to slip out, but that was alright; just color a strip on one side of an index card and slip it in there, and you'll be fine. They were adamant about people not wearing their own lanyards, so they paid more attention to those. Of course, you could just replace a lost one with a similarly colored one. It was pretty funny to see the strictest teachers getting fooled by strings and scraps of paper. It was less funny when an intruder mugged two guys and nearly raped a girl. He got onto campus by putting a long red(the seniors' color) shoelace around his neck and walking in from the direction of the seniors' parking lot. He allegedly even said good morning to the police officer and school administrator ''who were checking students for [=IDs=]''.

This troper is quite fortunate to not look even remotely like a troublemaker, and as such he can go just about anywhere during class as long as he looks like he's doing something important. He hasn't actually ''tried'' this yet, as he hasn't had a reason to, but he's found that when sent on an errand for the teachers, he can go all around the school without his planner (which has pages for hall passes in the back) and never be questioned. If he carries a planner open to the hall pass page or carries some papers and folders, he'll be pretty much untouchable.

Once, in high school, this lurker managed to have a fake announcement of a deep-discount sale at the school store read over the PA by tracing a teacher's signature from a hall pass onto a sheet with the text printed out on it -- then leaving it on the office counter early in the morning by setting it down underneath some books and just not picking it up again. As anticipated, somebody found it, assumed it was Exactly What It Says On The Tin, and read it with the rest of the day's notes.

And in this lurker's professional life, he's found that many-party conference calls are an ideal environment for this. When everybody's just a voice on a line and no one knows the others very well, the most authoritative voice is often assumed to be in charge and/or know best. Being at that stage of employment where you're already fed up with the place and don't care if you get caught verbally beating up senior contract managers in front of 20 other people is also helpful.

Furry Subculture; suddenly anyone wearing a high quality furry suit in public is an 'official' mascot and it's okay to hug them. Make of that what you will.

This furry troper has a tendancy to lose her official con badges. No matter; she just puts on her standard character-commissioned badges (the things you decorate your conbadge lanyard with) and pops down into all the places she wants to go without hassle. She can only imagine what a fursuit would let her do.

This Troper can attest to the fact that a fluro vest and a commanding attitude will get you everywhere: on one particular low-budget film production we managed to close off part of a city street with the aid of fluro vests and half a dozen traffic cones.

This troper's mother is Ukrainian. My step father is American. When he first came to Ukraine to visit my mother, she met him at the airport with her friend. The whole group was pulled over by the police on the way to their apartment, and my mother's friend told the police "This man is a foreigner. Now what is he going to think of you if you give us a fine for no reason? Good day." They promptly let them go without further comment. Later they were running late for a train to Warsaw from Kiev and the road to the train station had been blockaded. His mother explained to the policeman at the blockade that they needed urgently to make it to the train station and they could not get out right where they were because her husband was a paraplegic. This troper's step father, not knowing Russian, had no idea why they were allowed through the blockade.

This (British) troper is a member of the Air Training Corps, and has long since known the value of this trope. As an example, he and his younger sister were once walking back home in full DMP (combat camo) clothing. Despite only being seventeen and fourteen, we were given respectful looks by everyone we passed, and had one guy ask if we'd just come back from Afghanistan...

A game of Mafia that This Troper played had one BavarianFireDrill used to counter another: One player, who had a habit of taking control of things via force of personality, managed to get all of the town's Inspectors and Doctors to claim their roles to him in private on the very first day, even though he was really a Mafia member. A second player, an ordinary townsperson, became suspicious of the first player, so he pretended to be an Inspector and accused the first player of being Mafia. The first player's response? "All right, you got me. Fellow Mafia members, take note! There two (pointing) are Doctors. These two (pointing) are Inspectors. Use that information to win". In other words, one player almost single-handedly produced a Mafia victory simply by taking control of things, and was only stopped when someone else pretended to have actual authority and was believed.

Mafia games are full of this trope, but since all players are expecting it, it takes a bit of work to pull it off, because your claim ''will'' be investigated. In a nonstandard themed game being so creative that nobody thinks you could've made it up is often a good first step.

This troper has, at a bike rally he has attended for several years, been variously assumed to be: security, press, sound engineer, lighting engineer, roadie for one of the bands, PA for one of the bands, and on one occasion ''band member'' (from ''Powerage'', an AC/DC covers band, iirc). The reason? I was wearing a lanyard with a laminated ID badge saying 'Marshal's Kid'. The ID badges were generally colour coded, and most of the time that assumptions were made I was ''under 16''. Only twice have I 'abused' this power, and then for good reasons: they were short-staffed at the main gate and needed extra security; I wanted to hang out with Hayseed Dixie.

This troper's middle school went on lockdown twice, in the same year, because some jerk called the school and made a bomb threat; bastards did it when school was almost out too.

''Eleven'' times, during this troper's senior year. At least one of them (ostensibly and partly) was because the budding little felon didn't feel like taking a test that day, when it was particularly pleasant outside (our school either sent everyone to stand around outside within easy shrapnel distance or - before one of the threats was called in to both places at once - sent us to the middle school to sit around there).

This troper just finished CERT training (just as you should! Read on to see why you should do as he says). As part of the program, he received a green hardhat and a florescent green vest. The firefighter teaching the course warned us that in the event of a disaster, when we go out with that hardhat and vest, we can expect to be swamped with people wanting to be told what to do by the person in uniform. This troper has his hardhat on and says, go enroll in a CERT program! NOW.

Has anyone done a search for the phrase "I LOVE PRINGLES" on this very wiki? Interesting results to be had.

This troper once wanted to purloin a street sign for My Last Name Avenue. Fortunately, I own a yellow construction helmet. I drove up to the sign, stood on the hood of my car, unbolted the sign, said "Evenin'" to anyone who walked by, and because I was wearing a helmet, no one blinked.

This troper volunteered in the summers of 2008 and 2009 at the hospital where his father works, doing a job that was essentially that of a courier who could be assigned to do any other random tasks as needed. All volunteers have an official ID and are required to wear pants (meaning no jeans or shorts) and a nice-ish shirt. These factors, combined with my harmless appearance, a purposeful stride, and the occasional reminder (whether true or not) of "I'm a volunteer going to pick something up" allowed me to literally go ''anywhere'' in the hospital that wasn't locked. Needless to say, I did plenty of exploring in my free time and never once was stopped.

After years of getting nicked *every time* he neglected to buy a ticket on the subway, This Troper stumbled upon a non-authoritarian version of this once when he was in a hurry. Seeing controlers up ahead, he fished for his ticket, waved it at them without slowing down for the actual control, and only noticed much later that it actually was a week-old one - the real one was in another pocket. Apparently, looking mildly annoyed rather than nervous or crestfallen was the key. Suffice to say, he still carries that old ticket around in his daily subway travels ;).

I doubt this would work in Vancouver. Granted, it's rare for anyone to actually check tickets in the first place (lots of fare dodgers on the Skytrain), but when they do they generally take a good look at it. This troper still managed to pull off a (trivially easy/minor) version of this trope on a ''bus'', though: she was wandering around at SFU and avoided using one of her prepaid tickets on the bus back because it was boarding at all doors and she was surrounded by a crowd of U-Pass-holding college students. (I was in high school at the time. In fact, I was ''skipping class'' at the time.)

I have to board crowded subway trains all the time now that I'm in college. When you have a monthly pass, you can just enter one of the rear doors and wave it in the air. This also works if you have one of the stored-value passes that you have to tap on the machine up front. They look exactly the same from the back...at least at a distance. Plenty of free train rides for me.

In this troper's younger days, getting money to buy candy or play in the arcade was as simple as going up to a stranger and asking for donations for a certain charity that the local school supported. No one ever asked for a form or a badge. No one this troper knew of ever got caught.

I was fooled by I LOVE PRINGLES on the top of the page, and didn't realize it until the middle of the page when someone mentions it's a hoax. I'm gonna keep it as a warning to other foolish people.

Is it bad that I have an urge to mess with all the people's user pages with I LOVE PRINGLES in them so that they only say "you are an idiot for believing this would work. The wiki destroyer only targets people ''with'' I LOVE PRINGLES in the start of their page"? Or would that be mean/vandalism?

This troper just linked to this page and put "NICE TRY".

This troper was fooled too, but not quite as badly. Firstly, the message back then appeared on another page having nothing to do with this one and secondly, he expected it to be fake, but couldn't be arsed to actually check. Still, he's ashamed to link his username to this and just hopes nobody will look it up on the change history page.

This troper used his position as a former teacher's aide to pull a literal Bavarian Fire Drill, convincing his classmates to follow him through the entire building and back to class.

This troper was able to take over the school news program when the teacher was out. Admittedly the class as a whole was mot very bright.

This troper was able to get into a corner meeting room at the top of skyscraper with 3 of his friends simply by wearing suits and claiming we were there for a meeting.

This troper...haha, he's not actually a troper at all, just a lurker who clicked on through. Seriously, though, I suspect that you could get into half of all office buildings by wearing business dress and saying you were "here for training."

Meta-example: how does the reader know that any of the examples on this page actually happened? Why, because the tropers told him/her so, and the tropers wouldn't lie... would they?

When this troper was at school, he borrowed a stool from the art room, carried it half-way across the campus, onto a roof (via access stairs), across that roof in plain sight of the teachers on duty (The site was on a hill, so there was no way to stay out of view), and then used it to climb down onto a lower section of roof to retrieve a football, then climbed back up and returned the stool. When stopped by teachers, including one whose secondary job was delivering a good bollocking when needed, all the explanation I needed to give was "Sir asked me to fetch it/take it back," without any explanation who sir was.

He has also found that when wearing a suit in a particular department store was a good way to get treated by both customers and staff as a junior supervisor. One of the real staff has even asked him to adjust her shift for her.

And, when I was cutting through a tunnel inside a tower block dressed in a dinner jacket (the route makes sense if you know the city) early one evening, well-dressed middle-aged men I had never met addressed by as "sir" and were surprisingly deferential to me. I can only assume they were senior staff from the government office or one of the businesses in the building who thought I might be related to someone important. I have got a similar reaction when passing one of the pre-eminent clubs in the city at the right time of day as well, except there it was more curiosity than caution, although I doubt I could bluff my way in there as they seem to have figured out that I'm a nobody.

This troper has been described as having a "Boy Scout Aura" that disarms security. Once, when mixing up homemade fireworks in a dorm stairwell, my friends tapped me on the shoulder repeatedly. I turned to discover a security guard appraising me suspiciously. I simply said, "Oh, I'm mixing it up out here so I don't mess up my room," and returned to mixing. The guard simply shook his head and walked away. It helps that this happened in a college dorm, where the boundaries between the real and surreal are already somewhat blurred.

This troper once got into a video game convention by pretending to be a booth babe. Wear some khaki shorts and a green tank top, put your hair in a braid and pull on some combat boots. I spent all day just wandering around and was even given an official badge because I "forgot" mine. Props!

Yours truly was once mistaken for a bookstore employee (by a customer) simply because he was wearing a tie. Fortunately, he did know where the book the customer was looking for happened to be.

This will happen to almost any frequent bookstore customer who's wearing something nicer than jeans and a t-shirt (and that last part is really only optional). The rationale is that they've seen you there before, you're not looking around like you're lost, and, nine times out of ten, you can at least direct them to the right section for whatever they're looking for. Which can often be parlayed into an actual job there, if needed, particularly in stores smaller than Barnes & Nobles.

If you have a camera, a friend with a notebook, and you're both dressed semi-casually, a straight-faced delivery of "we're doing some prep for a documentary - John said it would be alright for us to stop by and look around, but we can go get some official documentation if you need it," you'll get a much more polite reception some places. This has been used twice at an abandoned asylum - once on a guard, once on a police officer. The guard just told us to be careful; while the officer asked who "John" was (an assistant to the secretary of someone or other in a state position, if memory serves - the state has owned this particular asylum since it was shut down for abuses), then apologized for telling us that we really should have something official. As we had been coming out of a building when he spotted us, we were quick to assure him that we didn't mind a bit, then scurried away. Getting caught wasn't ideal, but managing to avoid trespassing and/or breaking and entering charges (which are handed out semi-regularly there) took the sting out of it.

This troper... well, not exactly, I'm just a random dude whose not really a troper, but still, I'm a dude with a relevant tale. Some years ago my high school principal decided to implement "student ID's" - the way they were supposed to work was that each student and everyone employed at the school were issued a holder with a card with their name and function printed on it that they were supposed to wear at all times while in school. Their biggest use was being shown to the security guard on entering the school. In the spirit of Bavarian Fire Drill, this security measure was hillariously easy to beat - over the course of about a month I'd been replacing the card in the holder with cards of my own, progressively more unlike the original, and I'd never had any trouble whatsoever getting past the security guard, nor not arousing any suspicion in teachers (well, except for that one time my german teacher noticed my ID card actually said I was the principal and forced me to change it back to the original for the duration of the lesson - still, that's just one case in a loooong time). After that month I'd finally tried to enter the school by showing the guard a roll of red duct tape instead of an ID. I was let in, and it took about five seconds for the guard to call after me demanding to see the actual ID, so, you know, apparently there are limits to the effectiveness of BFD. Still, those limits are pretty hillarious, as even then I'd quickly waved one of my latest gag [=IDs=] to him, and was on my way with no further trouble.

This Troper is an occassional grifter. So yeah....

This troper always gets mistaken for a local by other tourists. Most recently this happened in Chicago, and it's happened in ''Japan'', of all places. I guess walking to your destination without looking lost, confused, or enthralled really helps. Hmm.

I LOVE PRINGLES.

As this troper can attest from numerous personal experiences with password scammers as well as various other people posting their examples on the forums, this trope comes into play on a near-daily basis in {{Gaia Online}}. One of the most popular (for reasons I can't fully comprehend) scams involves some complete moron claiming to be a member of the administrative staff or some such nonsense in a PM; the deluded fool then goes on to explain that as a result of numerous (entirely fictitious, to boot) reports being levied against your account, they need you to PM them your username and password (and in some really creative cases, your email account information) so they can clear this all up. Naturally, it often also contains some urgent deadline somewhere around half-an-hour after the PM is sent, after which your account '''WILL BE BANNED''' if the requested info isn't provided within that time frame. Ignoring the fact that the staff are ridiculously {{Anvilicious}} when it comes to telling the userbase never to fall for such scams, the userbase is generally extremely GenreSavvy when scams like this pop up. Noteworthy reasons why include the well-known fact that the admins have access to your account and don't actually ''need'' to bother you for information, or the equally well-known fact that their names' fonts appear in a shade of yellow absolutely nobody except the completely oblivious and stupid could confuse with an impostor's regular black font name. As Clementine demonstrated a few years back, though, there definitely ''are'' members of the site's lowest denominator who are GenreBlind beyond all comprehension.

Example having absolutely nothing to do with Gaia: This troper's mother apparently pulled one of these off over the phone when getting him reapplied for AHCCCS this year (as in the state of Arizona you need to reapply for federally provided health insurance about once every year after you turn 18 -- and it most certainly needs to be ''you'' they're speaking to, otherwise it won't take). She managed to keep his coverage going for another year simply by vocally impersonating said troper when asked who's calling -- and her "imitation troper" voice ''doesn't even remotely sound like I do''. We can only assume at this point that the lady working the phones was overworked and didn't particularly care if I actually was on the line or not.

This troper was volunteering at her school's lenten fish fry and, seeing a bunch of other volunteers milling about not sure what to do, started organizing them, explaining their duties as beverage servers, and assigning them designated tables to watch. I was thirteen and ordering around people more than four times my age. I was officially given a leadership position the next week and held onto it for five years.

This troper was at a science fiction convention once, which was hosted in a hall normally used for wedding receptions and the like, and was therefore ''much'' too small for the crowd that showed up. There were four main rooms with a common area between them. The common area was a horrible mess -- it was so packed you could barely move, and people were trying to get to four doors located at four different corners of the room. No "natural lanes of traffic" ever self-organized, and movement through the room was next to impossible. Suddenly one person took charge and began directing traffic. It worked -- suddenly people could move, and it was now possible to get from one area of the con to another. Of course, everyone assumed it was a con worker or a security guard. It wasn't. It was actor Warwick Davis, : Yes, he was too short for anyone to see. It worked anyway, which makes this a CrowningMomentOfAwesome for him. who was one of the celebrity guests.

This teenaged troper has lost count of the times she's been mistaken for a shoe salesperson, or, if she's in a school, for a teacher. She never, ever uses looking older than she is for entertainment value or for getting into places that don't allow minors in after dark. She does, however, use her reputation as TheSmartGuy in her group of friends as a way of getting them to do and believe all sorts of silly things.

This Troper's vocational school has had a problem with this at the diner (as school lunches are free in Finland for the students) in the form of people just walking in and treating themselves to a free meal. The school has posted guards at the entrance to check for student ID. Not only are they almost never there, they let anyone in as long as they have something remotely resembling a rectangular piece of plastic with them. This troper has gotten in with his trade union card and has witnessed his classmate get in with a white piece of plastic with a piture of a dog on it.

This Troper (Magnezone) did this unintentionally at a YMCA summer camp. She had twisted her ankle and was sitting in the one-room wooden house which counselors call The Office, when a woman came up with a silent little girl in tow. The conversation went as follows. (Keep in mind that this Troper, at the time, was quite tall for someone her age.) #QUOTE#'''Woman:''' Excuse me, I've come to drop off my daughter. #QUOTE#'''Me:''' ''[looks around, thinking there's a counselor here she didn't see]'' #QUOTE#'''Woman:''' (irritated) Alicia. She was coming late today. #QUOTE#'''Me:''' (trying to be as un-sarcastic as possible) Well, um, there's not actually any counselor here right now. I think they went to handle something in the pool. #QUOTE#[pause] #QUOTE#'''Girl:''' ...Mom, she doesn't work here.

This Troper went to a large group of his friends' school to kill time. He first broke into his friend's house and took his school shirt and wore it then turned up at the school, where he was informed by his contact (aka one of his friends) that his ID had been organised. Somehow they'd gotten a note written to say that he would be joining their Indonesian class (the fun part being This Troper does French at his own school) and then was given a visitors pass. Cue spending most of a day wandering around a school he's never been to before but knows most of the students; even joining in a strongly political debate with one of the teachers who later pulled him up and asked about something he'd said expressing worry. The uniform meant most people thought This Troper was another student, and whenever questioned the visitor's pass stopped that.

This Troper would like to mention that it isn't relegated to people being confused to having a legitimate presence in a place. Being in the military, I have noticed many a Senior NCO or Staff Officer walking around as if they have a reason to be there (which can be true) and making everyone else nervous as hell when they're around. Then again, as I have been in a staff position before, they are probably trying to escape (for a little while) from their Work Generating, Soul Stealing, Mind Destroying, Inbox from Hell (the physical, and electronic, kind). Making everyone else nervous is just the entertainment.

Perhaps because we're really law abiding in our naivety, but in Australia, people actually *don't care* if you walk through the scanners at the front of the store and trip off every alarm known to mankind, if you pause slightly, affect a slight annoyed look, and just keep on walking at the same pace. You get attention if you stop or speed up.

You get attention when you stop? I pause only because in past I get bored to wait till someone will notice me. (not in Austrailia though).

Another really good trick- about 7 out of 10 times, simply acting as if you have every right to be there and doing what you are doing will pass muster. Which is great if you're trying to serve legal documents on people who *desperately* don't want to be served; their employees/co-workers will guide you to them like laser guided karma...

This troper was in a summer program run through the local medical school that involved shadowing physicians. Several times she had been assigned to a physician in the children's hospital, which has 90 full-time security personnel, including guards posted at each elevator bay. Despite a lack of an employee, student, or even visitor badge (which we had been given when shadowing the previous week but which had been collected and never given out again), it seemed that a short lab coat and a university ID were enough to get one past all security and be mistaken for a medical student by several people. It helps that this troper also volunteers at this hospital and so can actually give directions when people ask for them. If she'd tried, she supposes she could have wandered anywhere she wanted.

There were a couple of Korean kids in my Creative Writing class who sat in the back of the class, and brought in laptops to "help them study." Once, towards the beginning of the school year, this troper went to the back of the room to pick something up, and glanced over at their screens. They were playing Runescape. Throughout the year, this troper kept making excuses to go to the back of the room and "work with their group." Read: power-level with them. Best part? We all got As, boosted by "class participation."

This Troper likes to dress snappily, and has a pet peeve about messily folded clothing. As such, she frequently gets mistaken for staff members at clothing stores. She uses her powers for good, though; she once helped someone pick out a fabulous party dress.

This Troper is a teacher. I go everywhere, and it's mostly because I have this innate sense that I should be allowed to be there. It works.

This troper has attended numerous concerts at his school by taking a generic walkie-talkie, dressing in school uniform and walking in while speaking into it, saying something along the lines of "Dammit, Steven. Can't you do something about Mic 4?" Also, he can do almost anything while in his NCDCC uniform, up to and including stealing a fire extinguisher in full view of the shopkeepers and walking out of the entrance with the extinguisher in full view nonchalantly. Not like he has done that, of course...

It's amazing how much trouble you can avoid if you act like you don't speak English. This Tropette once managed to avoid arrest for trespassing by saying "Not speak English" in a halting, very-fake Russian accent, and waving a camera around. The police thought I was a Russian tourist who wanted to take pictures, and they let me off with a warning.

This troper pulls this trick all the time with his Shadowrun character. On a not entirely unrelated note, German is a wonderful language to get angry in.

In Paris, where this troper lived for a few months, the tourist attractions are often surrounded by women begging. They will usually address you in French, but also speak some English, making it harder to feign ignorance. Spanish and German, though...

And on another occasion, through judicious use of a comedy Russian accent, a smattering of Polish and a confused expression, this troper and his friends managed to convince a (none too bright, I concede) girl in Seville that I was a non-Anglophone Russian student named Dimitar Berbatov (For those who don't know, this is the name of a somewhat-well-know Bulgarian football (soccer) player)

This can misfire badly. The director from a TV production studio was doing an ad for a car dealership, and the dealers were supposed to provide some help moving cars for the camera. The "helpers" snuck off to avoid doing any actual work, and must have told a salesman to not say anything. When the director went looking for the helpers, she asked a salesman if he'd seen them. #QUOTE#Salesman: "Uh, no hablo Inglés" #QUOTE#Director: "No hay problema, yo hablo Español. ¿Dónde estan los dos--" #QUOTE#Salesman: "They're in the back."

Eavesdroppers everywhere, take note of the Christianson School of Improbable Perceptiveness: wearing headphones clearly means you're not paying attention to someone else's conversation regardless of proximity, especially if you're obviously listening to music on a CD player. This troper loves keeping at least one blank CD on hand for this reason; if they see you slipping a CD into the player, they're guaranteed to ignore you and will refrain from questioning the guy standing a few feet away listening to music while picking out a book at the library.

I once watched a Pod on Current TV about a pair of BASE jumpers who jumped off the Burj Dubai when it was still being built. They snuck in by wearing suit trousers, white button-up shirts, ties, fluorescent jackets and hard hats, posing as European engineers. With the wing-suits stuffed into their duffle bags, of course. Unfortunately, I can't find the video anywhere. Any chance of some WikiMagic happening?

This troper had a high school where the hall monitors were the (ahem) lower end of the academic spectrum hoping to gain some easy credit. Suffice it to say, I managed to get by with a good reputation. Additionally, one of my classmates, who ''was'' a troublemaker, managed to get by hall monitors by ''flipping open his cell phone and passing it off as a hall pass, which our school doesn't use.'' Yeah, they weren't the best security...

This troper had to pick up his sister at the train station after a long day of Resident Adviser training, where he had to dress semi-formal (white dress shirt and suit jacket over jeans). I had forgotten to take my RA ID off, which was hanging around my neck. Cue at least five people mistaking me for a Amtrak employee (one question even seemed like it was intended for a stationmaster or equivalent). It was a good practice of my people-handling skills learned that day.

This troper has worked on location as a production assistant, and while doing firewatch had a guy walk up to her and say, "Hi, I'm Bill, with backstage lighting? Can you tell me where the director is?" It very nearly worked; the guy just wanted to poke around the set. (Here's a hint for wannabe social engineers: anybody genuinely with the production would know who the director is and ask for him by name, not by title.) This same troper has also managed to be mistaken for a local even in places where she doesn't speak the language, mostly by looking determined and knowing where she's going.

This troper and his teammates, whilst at Geneva airport, took over sorting duties at the skis baggage claim belt (we were running late and had around 12 pairs of skis to recover) due to there being lots of bags and no one clearing the clogged pile. Since this troper and two others were wearing our matching 'Ski Race Team' polo shirts - dark blue with university crest on the left, and smaller writing on the right, we were frequently mistaken for staff, being asked around 10 times where to find the lost baggage desk, and having people complain about us 'suddenly going on a break' when we'd finally recovered all our gear and left.

When this troper was a child, his father managed to get the family into a fairground for free when a carnie mistook him for another because of his scruffy, not-quite-punk clothing, and he just went with it.

Sitting at the back of a courtroom with a sharp suit and an official-looking tie (from the University of Tokyo) apparently gets you mistaken for a special inspector from the Ministry of Justice and offered coffee. Even though the MoJ does not employ many 22-year-old inspectors. A wandering security officer thought the same outfit denoted the Clerk of the Court, despite the very obvious presence of a middle-aged lady in a gown at the front.

Once, when heading to a rock concert, this troper's group was dismayed to discover that all the carparks near the theatre was occupied... save for the university carpark. The driver told us to spread each take some of the university binders he had at the back of his seat. We drove up to the security entrance, and told the guard that we were late for a thesis meeting with Dr. Chung of the Hakka Cultural Studies Faculty. Guard let us in, we got free parking and fully partied the night away at the "thesis meeting".

Simply walking with a purpose, wearing a black tshirt and looking appropriately scruffy can get you backstage access to almost any theatre. This works for rock & roll and festivals too - pair of shifters on your belt and the words "I'm here for the out" are an almost universal pass.

This spanish troper played one of this at a museum inauguration. I stepped in but a guard told me to go away if I didn't have an invitation. I told I had been sent one but the postal service doesn't work well. He told me that that was a lie, so I told him to talk to the culture councillor (whom I don't know personally) who stood 50 feet away from us. I insisted that he talked to him. He didn't and let me in.

This troper's entire class once pulled this on our Social Studies teacher, as an April Fool's prank. One guy stood up and stormed out of the classroom, tears practically in his eyes (yes, this was planned). Everyone else promptly got up and followed him, saying things like, "We'll go get him, don't follow us, you'll only make it worse." It was a full twenty minutes before he came to get us. If you were there, you know who you are. If you're the guy that kicked it off, nice acting!

This troper used to intern at Disney World, where the parks have Extra Magic Hours, hours where the park is open either early or late only for resort guests; this is checked at the rides. Though this troper kept an old resort key card for this purpose (they don't check dates), her best friend, a fellow cast member, once got onto a ride being manned by a kid in training by flashing his (non-photo!) company ID and declaring, "Official Disney business."

DisneyWorld as a whole is built on making you have a wonderful time. You can get a lot of free perks if you know who and how and where to ask, as his also intern sister would display.

This Troper, who is currently 15, has always looked old for his age, as well as a rather cynical, bitter, and world-weary personality and I am proud to say that the hell has been abused out of this trait. For instance, last weekend I walked into a tobacco shop, grabbed a pack of cigarillos and a can of dip, and the man behind the counter UNQUESTIONINGLY accepts my money, and I don't even have a driver's license yet. However, Most Triumphant Example goes to a time last year, when I was only 14. I was at Purdue with a 4H workshop, and I was walking all the way across Campus to The Union. I had gotten tired of the death glares I got from the actual students, so I put my nametag in my pocket. Sure enough, the fratboys stopped staring at me like a retard. Unfortunately, I got a little bit lost, so I asked a passing student for directions. After correcting my course, he asked me "You a new student, eh?" And I said "Yep," and he walked along while I smiled to myself quietly.

This troper was once visiting a rather large museum with an associate. This troper was wearing a {{Coldplay}} t-shirt, while said associate (who looked far older than him) was wearing a blue office shirt. At the ticket booth, the ticket guy shyly smiled at us and gestured us to enter before we bought any ticket. Puzzled, we went around the museum looking at stuff. A quarter hours later, we realized that we were given free admission because the associate's blue office shirt looked exactly the same as the staff's uniform, and the ticket guy thought that this troper was his kid. We spent the rest of the visit holding back our laughters.

Tropers/{{Excel-2010}}. My life revolves around making myself look more important than I really am. I regularly order useless testing equipment and measuring instruments and carry a few around whenever I feel I'll need to answer important questions. The only thing I'm missing is a company car. The trick to making this work is having a long, boring explanation of your actions ready whenever you're questioned. If it's authoritative, drop a lot of important-sounding credentials and acronyms as if the inquirer is expected to know them. As long as they don't ask for identification, which you can deter with practice, you can do whatever you want. If pressed, however, and you don't have a ready explanation, simply saying "YouDoNotWantToKnow" in an ominous tone can do the trick as well, but I try not to resort to it.

Recently, I've gotten into the habit of keeping a pair of thin rubber gloves (the kind used for food service) in my back pocket and taking command by pulling them out and inspecting things as the situation calls for it. When asked why I always keep gloves in my pocket, I reply, "It always helps to be prepared." If I'm feeling particularly adventurous, I say, "You never know when you have to murder someone who deserves it."

This Troper once got into a Country Club simply by walking past the guards, pointing to his friends and saying "They're with me."

This troper found himself in a traffic jam where a postal truck was stuck turning in front of him with insufficient room and the driver behind him wouldn't back up. So I alternated my turn signal to make it look like police lights. The car behind me got the message, and that cleared enough space to get the postal truck free and clear the traffic jam.

I've gotten quite a few free train tickets out of this on Metra. When the conductor comes by and asks for tickets, if you simply do not look up or react, they'll assume you've already been checked.

This troper pulled one of this to avoid paying the ticket at the Louvre and the Museum of the French Army. Long story short: cool suit, cool longcoat, fake moustache, waving the wallet FBI-style and saying "service de conservation de biens de la Republique". Entering by the tourists' entrance. The troper was only 18 when he pulled this. It was a couple of years ago and I am still thinking about how in the hell did that work.

An expensive or complicated-looking radio can lend an unexpected air of importance. A local ham radio club helped with communications during a large athletic event; the radio guys ended up answering a ''lot'' more questions than the event staff - particularly one ham who had a large headset with a boom mic!

This troper worked at Lockheed Martin in Marietta, Georgia right out of college (2000). There was a tale of a guy who during the local plant's heyday during the '70's interviewed and got a job as a structural analyst engineer. He worked in his cubicle for two months on the work assigned to him before a manager asked for him to write a report on what he had done so far. He wrote it up and handed it to the manager. Ten minutes later the manager came storming back to his desk, threw the report down and yelled, "What the hell is this!?" The worker stood up and said, "I quit." Turned out he was an out of work plumber who rooked the company for 8 weeks of engineers salary.

My mother worked in an ice cream store for a while after she graduated. One day, some stranger walked in, traipsed behind the counter where my mom was, told her "It's okay, I used to work here", and made off with all the ice cream in the store. It took her a few minutes to realize what had happened.

This troper works in an office where cell phones have to be turned off, except for the boss who is in constant contact with the home office. At least one sneaky employee has set his cell phone ringtone to the same one as the boss, so that when he receives a call most people (including his supervisor) will dismiss it as the boss receiving a call.

This troper and his friend did this at a convention. We passed off a sign that said "Free hugs" onto this adorable little cosplayer, and left. We saw her again an hour or so later, she was incredibly disheveled, so we took it back out of mercy.

Similar to some of the prior-mentioned examples, this editor is often viewed as a good-hearted student in school and can pretty much walk anywhere without a hall pass. He can even leave in the middle of the class without telling the teacher or signing out without getting stopped, though he only really gets a drink and such. Once, he actually managed to stay all day at a LAN (video games galore) party at school ''without paying the $5 admission for it''. LOVE PRINGLES

A friend of this troper was having trouble with a cable company hassling her to return equipment she had ALREADY RETURNED. After a few days, her boyfriend put on a suit, grabbed his briefcase, went over to the cable company and said he was there "on behalf of Ms. So-and-so." They managed to find the equipment in question in less than five minutes.

This troper is often mistaken for a supervisor by new employees at his theme park job. All it takes is the ability to give instructions, a knowledge of the way things work and not slacking about. Even though supervisors wear completely different shirts. And carry radios and clipboards. Here's a tip, if you ever want to get into a back area of a theme park, wear dress pants, a dress shirt and look like you belong.

This troper recently did costumes and props for a Greek-language production of Aeschylus's ''Eumenides''. After the show, the director wanted a cast picture on stage around Apollo's altar, but there weren't enough lights on in the theatre for good pictures and our tech guy had already gone. The director asked if anyone knew how to work the light panel in the tech booth. Without even thinking, I, who had never set foot in a tech booth in ten years of theatre, shouted "I do!" and sped off to the booth, confident that when I got there I could work out what I was supposed to be doing. The tech booth was extensive, so it took me a bit to find the lights panel. Conveniently there was a label showing the lights I needed, so I brought them up and dashed back to the stage to get in the picture with neither the cast nor the director aware that I had just put one over on them. When the photography was over, I went back up and brought the stage and house lights down and locked the booth up for the night. Later, while I was cleaning up make-up and repairing costumes, the director came over to me and thanked me for dealing with the lights. I looked her right in the eye and said, "I hope you realize that when I said I knew how the lights panel worked, it was an utter lie."

this troper went to Italy with her family when she was ten. she was in a museum and saw a painting of cupid and psyche, and started explaining the story to her Aunt and parents. by the end of the story, she moved on, and so did the crowed of about 6 other people that thought she was giving a tour. (even stranger, she was a really petite kid- she looked about eight.) she managed to make a few euros after talking about a few more paintings. thank heavens for the fourth grade teacher that loved roman mythology and taught us about art!

This troper uses a variant of this trope to talk to high profile people at events - when everyone is lining up to shake the guy's hand, hang out near the front, chat with the event organizers, and the like. People will just assume that you're supposed to be there, and when the crowd is gone, you'll suddenly be part of the privileged group and you'll often get to have a nice long conversation.