Summer is winding down, and soon we’ll have the fall colors gracing the trees. School hasn’t started yet, so some of you will be getting out of town before the kids return to the classrooms. If you’re planning to spend any time in a hotel or motel, here are a few facts to keep in mind, as you travel:
- A customer’s hotel key card contains the customer’s name, possibly a partial home address, the room number, check-in and check-out date, a credit card number and expiration date.
- When you turn in your key at the front desk, your personal information is there, until someone clears the card magnetically.
- These cards can be quite valuable to a dishonest employee.
- One solution might be for you to take the card home with you or destroy it yourself. It’s illegal for the hotel to charge you for the key card.
- If you have a small magnet, run it over the strip on the card. Do this after you leave your room for the last time. The magnet will erase all information in the card.
Don’t make your last Out and About venture for the summer a horrible experience. Have fun and use your common sense.
The Light and Life Wesleyan Church, 15765 Hoffman Road, directly across from the UAW Union Hall, Three Rivers, is celebrating ten years of serving the Three Rivers community in many ways. To celebrate, they invite everyone to their Annual Yard and Bake Sale, this Saturday, August 25, from 9 AM to 4 PM. There will be a variety of items for sale, plus delicious home-baked goods to take home and share with family and friends. Should you need more information, please contact Pat at (269) 535-0699.
Labor Day weekend is only a week and a half away. Every year, a lot of people head north to the Mackinac Bridge for the annual bridge walk. I don’t mind driving that far, but driving across bridges is something I’d rather not do. Forget about walking across the thing. That’s a five-mile hike. Then you have to get back to where you started. You don’t have to travel that far to walk across a bridge, and you don’t have to experience the height of the Big Mac. Thanks to the Three Rivers Woman’s Club, you can do a bridge walk right here in Three Rivers. The Second Annual Three Rivers Bridge Walk takes place on Labor Day, Monday, September 4, from 9AM to noon. It starts in Scidmore Park, where everyone will be provided a map and a passport. As you follow the map and cross a bridge, your passport will be stamped. Sounds like a fun event to me. You may register online at www.trwomansclub.org/home. Water and baked goods may be purchased during the walk. The walk itself is FREE. All proceeds will go to the “Trail Fund”.
Is your pet cute? If so, you’ll want to seriously consider entering your pet in the Animal Rescue Fund’s Cutest Pet Contest. All entries need to be mailed into ARF by September 4. Voting will take place during the St. Joseph County Grange Fair, which runs from Sunday, September 16 through Saturday, September 22. To vote, visit ARF’s booth at the fair. It will be located in barn number 42, in booths 43 and 44. For information on where to send your entry, please contact Beam Sound and Video at (269) 279-6251 or Lee Ann at (269) 718-3826.
Speaking of pets, dogs are not gourmets. We are all very conscious of how we spend our hard-earned money. Don’t pay more for “premium” food. Any food marked “complete” or “total nutrition” is fine for healthy animals. Be aware of the cheapest foods, which have fillers and additives that may cause health problems. The big-box stores tend to have the best pet food prices.
When getting Out and About to run errands, you might consider driving to the farthest destination first. This will give your vehicle a chance to warm up and achieve maximum fuel efficiency. Starting with closer stops hurts your gas mileage. If you’re going only a few blocks, walk. It’s a healthy choice.
See you Out and About!
The magnet trick with hotel key cards may or may not work to remove critical data. It depends greatly on the type (strength) of the magnet you use to erase as well as the method of magnetizing done to “program” the card. I would not personally place a lot of stock in it.
It also depends on the magnet pattern of North and South magnetic poles. Most folks think of a magnet having only one north and one south pole, but such is not the case. Take the magnets used for those ads and calendars that you stick up on your fridge door. If you put a special paper with iron filings you’d see a series of stripes becuase they have alternating stripes of north and south poles. Some types of these patterns can deactivate some types of antitheft tags, and early shoplifting tag technology used a type of magnet pad like this to deactivate the tags. Its a bit more elaborate than that nowadays, but they could also have some potential to erase data also. But yes, all other things being equal, a good rare earth magnet will probably do the trick. I usually take the cards home and pop in the paper shredder.
Hotel key cards do not and never have contained personal information. This stems from an untrue email from the Pasadena police and has been retracted, however the retraction was not exciting enough to be spread like the original. You can leave the keys behind without any fears and let the next guest use them. And for the record I have 20 years experience in the hotel lock and key card industry.
If you want to take the cards at least ask the hotel to use wooden cards and not PVC ones as at least they are sustainable.