Next to the JFK airport in New York, there is a hotel. In the backyard of the hotel, there are always a couple dozen people mulling about. They hold little handmade placards so that the placards can be seen from the windows of the hotel. The placards are in Russian and say things like “IPhone $30,” “a Chanel bag $45,” “a Burberry coat $60.”
Riddle: What are these people doing? Who are they looking for?
Clarissa's Blog 
Are they looking for people to sell these things for those prices? Or perhaps they are looking for people who have bought those things for those prices?
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The idea that they’re selling these things at those prices (retail or wholesale for resale in Russia) is too obvious.
Maybe they’re offering ransom? That is they’re saying “you stole my iphone I’ll give you $ 30 to get it back” or (more likely) “I stole your Iphone, pay me $ 30 to get it back”.
Or the whole thing could be code for something else? So that “Iphone $30” is a code for selling something else (and not for 30$). Or it could be a code for people arriving from or departing for Russia?
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No, they are not selling them.
Who stays at an airport hotel every day? Hint: people with placards are looking for representatives of certain professions who stay at that hotel all the time.
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“Who stays at an airport hotel every day?”
Flight crews?
Are they saying how much they’ll pay for said items if the flight crews can steal them?
Or are they signalling the cleaning staff how much they’ll pay?
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Flight crews, exactly!
And what can flight crews do with all these goods that’s worth a small fee?
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“And what can flight crews do”
I would say smuggle them but it seems like a lot of work for not very much gain.
But are the placards offers for smuggled goods or orders for something the people with placards want smuggled in order to avoid customs…. Are flight attendants not subject to usual customs searches in Russia? What is the direction of the smuggling?
This is why I’m not cut out for a life of crime. The details of swindles small and large seem like too much work or are too complicated to worry about….
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Yes, they transport the items. All of these goods cost 2-3 times their original price at the stores in Russia. And if you buy stuff online, there is a huge import tax plus the postal services of Russia are horrible. You’ll wait for your packages for months.
So immigrants start small businesses where they hire Russian flight crews to transport these goods to people who buy them in Russia.
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” small businesses where they hire Russian flight crews to transport these goods to people who buy them in Russia.”
that seems very trusting for Russians…. what’s to stop the flight attendants from just taking them and reselling them themselves?
I would assume there are threats of physical force somewhere along the line if someone doesn’t fill their part of the bargain, but how does it work? Are buyers in Russia alerted when a particular flight is supposed to arrive?
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“that seems very trusting for Russians…. what’s to stop the flight attendants from just taking them and reselling them themselves?”
“Are buyers in Russia alerted when a particular flight is supposed to arrive?”
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Im guessing its somehow linked to prostitution?
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Perhaps the items on the placards are what the “johns” are willing to pay the prostitutes?
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“The exact same system existed back in the USSR to transport things by train throughout the enormous country. Train attendants did that back then.”
This is more interesting than it seems on the surface, a holdover from one system ot another (or a revival since Putin’s Russia is much more like the USSR than the system that existed between them – if you can call that chaos a “system”).
It also seems similar to the hawala money transfer system:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawala
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