I was talking with The Mona Museum on twitter last, or to be precise The Mona Museum was tweeting and a handful of us were asking questions and receiving responses.
Mona, my beautiful Mona that I am so enamoured with is losing 20 O devices a Day.
An O device is the iPod touch you receive on entry to the museum. There is site specific software on the device which tracks your visit and enables you to tap the screen and get varied snippets of information about the art work you are viewing. They are very clever, fun and interesting.
And also fucking useless away from Mona.
So not only are a some people pocketing the O, they are pinching the beanbags as well. I find that absolutely amazing that some people are such shitheads, they would go to a public space and just steal things that appeal to them. But then again after the week I have just had I am not surprised at all.
Unfortunately because of the total arshattery of a small number of people everyone is going to be punished.
Especially the under eighteens that go to the museum without an adult to vouch for them. I was talking to a 17 year old friend on facebook and she had just returned from her first trip to Mona. Her reaction to Mona was wonderful and I was absolutely thrilled to bits that another Tasmanian teenager had fallen under Mona’s spell. Now because of those low life thieves this young lady wont be able to use the O device unless she is accompanied by an Adult.
From next week there will also be a sign in process for the O devices which will be a necessary inconvenience.
I am not surprised by the theft of the O devices as the world is full of shitheads and shit happens. I am incredibly saddened though that the young people I know, are being punished the hardest for the actions of these mongrel thieves.
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So irritating that so few can bugger things up for the rest of us.
I was going to say it isn’t hard to get around the customization the O units have, but these scum wouldn’t know where to start. Mona should make sure the local Apple stores and repair centers know, even better if thy can give them and Apple serial numbers to watch for. The thieves are dumb enough to turn up with a stolen unit and expect help, seen it before. They get rather cross when you call the cops!
Look, in my experience, it’s very rarely the under 18s stealing things in these kinds of situations. Instead, it’s the well heeled, well dressed adults who have a sense of entitlement to things.
I think it’s a shame that we’re punishing the young people attending MONA without an adult present for something they’re unlikely to have done.
Children are more honest than we give them credit for. Adults aren’t.
I agree with the ID checks and names being taken, but think that if an under 18 can produce ID of some form, then they should be allowed to borrow an O for the tour.
I agree Veronica. I remember when I took you and your friend Em on a tour to Cadbury’s for your birthday. All the people on the tour were asked not to eat/steal the chocolate in the recycle bins as there would be plenty of samples along the way. There was an old bloke offering you kids chocolate from a bin next to the machines and he pocketed quite a bit himself.
At the end of the tour, the tour guide came up to me and complimented me on my honest children, presented you girls with a bag of chockies each and then told me that it was RARELY the kids that pinched the chocolate it was always the older people.
Chocolate, O’s, Bean bags, Ceramic eggs it is always very easy/convenient to blame the under 18s
It’s very sad when people steal something and make it worse for all the honest people. Especially something that isn’t useful outside Mona.
Maybe they can display the O’s in their garden next to the stolen eggs?
Well, if they asked a deposit like a drivers’ license or credit card, this would happen far less. It is a shame though.
That sort of behavior really does spoil it for everyone else. I hope the new system stops the thefts.
I don’t understand people who take advantage of someone’s trust and generosity like this, however, I’m sadly not surprised. It’s not just under 18s who steal, but a lot of them are, and under 18s can’t be charged with theft so the consequences for them are a lot less if caught. Unfortunately, a system where ID is logged will lengthen the queues for visitors as well as potential frustration.
While I’m angry on behalf of MONA, The thievery doesn’t really surprise me.
As you know I work in a supermarket and on a daily basis I do several tours of the store picking up rubbish from the shelves. Most of this rubbish is opened and empty packaging, from which people have stolen the items, stashed way behind other items on shelves and in aisles far away from the original placement. Other thieves are more brazen. Very recently a woman came to the checkout line with two full bags of shopping saying she couldn’t find her friend and could we please page her. Then she stepped back out of the way to “wait”, and while we were occupied with other customers she walked out and then took off running across the carpark.
There have been cases of….. oh wait, I don’t want to give potential thieves any ideas…..sorry.
It’s a sad world we live in, but that is the way it works. A few bad ones ruin it for the good ones (of which there fortunately are more).
Can’t believe how dumb and devious some people are! Could try an amnesty and ask for returns. (Remember that library book you didn’t return).
Some people of all ages are abusers…no respect for property. The ones that steal stuff out of your front garden. Wish the O had a destruct button….whoa what happened in my pocket #@**
We used to live near a prestigious private high school. Eventually we (the people on our street) approached the council to limit parking there. The councillors said, “Oh, that’s because of the students at X,” and I, who was presenting on behalf of residents, “No. It’s their parents.” I explained that I had never had a student park in front of my house without first getting a knock on the door & request for permission to park there, followed by many expressions of gratitude. I don’t think I ever turned one down. The problem was their parents, who would park ON my lawn, or blocking my mailbox or driveway, and get angry when I asked them to move. If I pointed out a nearby carpark designed to accommodate them, the response was that they couldn’t walk that far.
I don’t think the councillors quite believed me, but it was nothing other than the truth.
Urgh… Now I’m going to have to go with my mum.
How embarassing.