Stash It Where? NYPD Discovers Underwear With Secret Pockets

by Justin Fenner | 5:44 pm, August 16th, 2010

Movie and TV characters have come up with creative ways to hide drugs in their clothing — the episode of Gossip Girl in which Jenny sews pills into hollow buttons on a bolero comes to mind. But New York police have discovered a real-life way of hiding drugs and small weapons where the sun doesn’t shine.

The Wall Street Journal reports that a few officers literally debriefed a young man in Brooklyn last month after he told them that his underwear was made to conceal things. The news spread quickly throughout the entire police department, and now that the NYPD knows bad guys have another hiding place, a policy change could very well be in the works.

Instead of the standard light pat-downs around suspects’ waistbands, the knowledge that this secret underwear exists is going to cause police to have to undertake more thorough searches of some suspects, said Capt. Vincent Patti.

The police have singled out a specific brand of secret-pocket underwear called Stashitwear, though the company’s owner says he thinks he only has a few customers in New York City. And he also says his product isn’t marketed specifically to criminals, but its roomy pouch is pretty handy for stashing away things you wouldn’t want someone else to find.

“I always stashed my money when traveling so I don’t lose it or get pick-pocketed,” [said Phillip Scott, who invented Stashitwear].

After he lost his wallet on a trip a few years back, Mr. Scott says he searched the Internet for ways to stash his cash, license, credit cards and important documents, but all he could find was a money belt or hats that had hidden compartments.

While it’s probably not the most comforting news that your product is being used by people on the wrong side of the law — and that one of the largest police departments in the country has its eye on you — The Journal says Scott changed his website to be more presentable after he found out the news.

After speaking with a reporter, the Stashitwear owner had his website changed. The photo of Mr. Scott in which he resembled a hillbilly was replaced with one of him wearing sunglasses, a white shirt and tie.

Clothes make the man. And apparently, underwear facilitates the crime.

[The Wall Street Journal via Newser]

crime Hidden Pockets NYPD Philip Scott Pockets Stashitwear Underwear