Detained!!

Musings from Dennis #30. The licensing business can be both fun and hazardous at the same time. Back then, my former colleagues used to get prospect licensee information by tearing the hangtags off the merchandise at retail. I prefer to write them down but here was the problem, when the security sees you they will stop you in your tracks and demand you delete the info. I then hit upon this idea – call myself in the office and leave a message by reading out loud the leads on the packaging; then head back and retrieve the info.. At times when the guards would approach, I would pretend to talk to someone! Sometimes the ‘research’ included taking photos (in those days it was highly restricted) and I remember those tough guards at Carrefour Indonesia like hawks everywhere looking at me holding up my camera (we did not have camera phones then). Such was an experience at the Isetan store at Lot 10 Bukit Bintang in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. I was actually snapping our Disney items on shelf with no 'spying' intentions but was stopped in my tracks and subsequently detained in the store’s security office! I managed to get them to call the buyer and thankfully she released me but not after a while!