My current infatuation with TV shows is ABC’s new show Take the Money and Run. Thank you to Cindy for telling me about this show!
The premise is this: a team of two is given a briefcase (handcuffed to an arm, no less) full of $100,000 and give one hour to hide it. A second team of two, usually active or retired police veterans, then take the “robbers” into custody for 48 hours. If the briefcase is still in its hiding place 48 hours later, the Robbers win, and get to keep the money. If not, the Cops get to keep it.
The robber are put in jail for the two days, and undergo interrogations by another team of two, the Investigators. The Investigators are the same every episode. The Cops are out in the field, searching, and the Investigators question the Robbers and relay any pertinent info to the Cops.
I love it! The hide part is always fun. So far the contestants seem to always know a little about whatever city they’re in. In the four shows i have seen, one pair of contestants buried the briefcase in a park, one pair stashed it in some bushes, and two pairs hid the money with a friend. I have my plan already figured out – see below.
The interrogation portion seems to be the hardest; all contestants agree. It doesn’t really look that bad, honestly, but the psychology of it is what really fascinates me. In two episodes, one of the Robbers cracked under the pressure of interrogation. The Robbers are separated, of course, and put in small cells that look just like what you would expect a cell to be. In one episode, we saw the Investigators do an interrogation session inside the Robber’s cell with him, invading his personal space. When they left, they took his toothbrush, toothpaste and book he had been reading to pass the time. That Robber later cracked. I really dislike not being able to brush my teeth, but I think i could endure anything for two days.
The rules are this: the Investigators have access to your GPS route, your phone calls and all receipts. There also seem to be some undisclosed rules that we’re not explicitly told about. In one episode, we heard an Investigator remind a Robber, “You know that you do not have the right to remain silent, right?” So it seems you can’t go on the show and then just give the Investigators the silent treatment. I guess that wouldn’t make for good TV. It’s interesting, then, because the Robbers have to either tell the truth or make up a lie, and then the Investigators try to decipher the differences.
I also wonder if there are other undisclosed rules. Could i trespass on someone’s property? Do i need to get permission from a friend to go in their house or yard? Could i knock on a stranger’s door? Could i leave it in the trunk of a friend’s car? No one has done any of those things, so i don’t know.
Meanwhile the Cops are out there retracing your route and in some cases, literally beating the bushes.
My plan – assuming it was in Raleigh: Make no phone calls, make no purchases. High-tail it to the beltline. Exit on Lake Boone, and drive through the shopping center there, then park briefly at the apartment complex across the street, where a friend of ours lives. Next, drive to our neighborhood, through some backroads that happens to go past another friend’s house. When passing, knock on his door and ask to hide something. If he isn’t there, i’d like to just hide the money in his backyard shed. Since there is street parking, it would look like we had just driven through. Next, cross over into our neighborhood and drive to our house and pull into our driveway, but leave immediately. Then drive to the frisbee golf course nearby. Next, drive a short distance to another friend’s house. Then drive as far as we could before the time expired.
I think an hour would be enough time to do all this. If the rules are we needed to make contact with a person before hiding it with them, i would call all three friends and ask them to say they’d seen us, and the first two would say we still had the briefcase when we left. Our story would be hiding it somewhere near the frisbee golf course.
It’s fun to plan, and i wonder if my decoys would be any good. Driving through a lot of neighborhoods has to be suspicious. Would they knock on doors? Would anyone see us?
Where would you stash your cash?
I think the interrogation would be trickier than i imagine, but i’d love to give it a try. How do i sign up for this show?
