Occasional commenter Peter from Murrumbeena has sent me this video of Myki short term tickets setting off a shop alarm.
Apparently it relates to the RFID technology used in the tickets. When a number are placed in close proximity, they look to the shop alarm like the tag attached to protected goods, setting off the alarm.
(Short term tickets are not yet available in Melbourne, but will eventually replace single-use 2-hour/daily Metcards for people who don’t purchase a re-usable Myki card.)
3 replies on “Myki short term tickets set off shop alarms”
I’m not sure why, but some combination of my Nexus One (Phone) and headphones sets off these alarms when they’re in the same pocket together. (The headphones have this little pouch they’re kept in)
Luckily the security guards at my local know me well enough that they don’t bother stopping me.
For about a year I had to put up with my wallet setting off these alarms every time I entered or exited a store. The store staff used to always get suspicious that I was stealing stuff in my pockets until one day I told them it was my wallet and that they should deactivate it like they would the security tag on normal stock. This worked for about 6 months until it started again. It must be one of my cards developing a micro-charge or something.
If you ask me they should be setting off alarms in the Green/Reuse camp. The short-term tickets should not be disposable.