I was browsing through a book I had no intention of buying when one of the little paper/metallic security inserts dropped out. Rather than let it lie where it fell (this phrase is a legal allusion, so subtle and yet also so lame that I feel compelled to point it out as going far beyond my usual standards for lame allusions), I pocketed it. As expected, I set off the alarm bleeper on my way out, although empty-handed. I looked around in feigned confusion, waited for the alarm to stop, and then walked back into the store with a puzzled look on my face, thereby setting off the alarm a second time.
Now, if one person pulls this stunt, he's an annoying butthead with nothing better to do than annoy everyone else in the bookstore. But I don't want to be an annoying butthead, so I was thinking that if two people pull this stunt, well, okay, they're both annoying buttheads. But, you know, if a million people pull this stunt, then we're talking about a whole movement, and maybe they'll stop dropping insert tags into books. I figure that setting off the alarm while empty-handed is the exact inverse of shoplifting, and a much better way of poking back at the surveillance system the tags embody.
Anyway, it's still in my pocket, and at this point, I'm curious to see what others stores' security systems I can set off.