Thumb bandits were nefarious individuals prevalent in 2015.
History[]
According to the Newsline column on the front page of the October 22, 2015 issue of USA Today,[1] thumb bandits stole people's thumbs "after amputating" (most notably, those of hospital patients), in order to gain access to high security or high clearance areas via the use of thumb pads, and then committed their crimes — usually burglary.
This was no doubt the reason why one of the messages displayed on the electronic readout on the hatbands of Officers Reese and Foley's peaked caps was Do not covet thy neighbor's thumb![2]
Actuality[]
- Thankfully, there aren't any real-life thumb bandits and even if this was the case, the severed thumbs would be quite useless to them because the fingerprint scanner on something like an iPhone, for example, will not work with a thumb — or any other digit for that matter — that has been amputated from a living body.[3]
Appearances[]
- Back to the Future Part II (In USA Today's Newsline column "Thumb bandits strike again")
References[]
- ↑ Special "front page wrap" for real life October 22, 2015 issue of USA Today (see 'External links' below)
- ↑ Back to the Future: The Official Book of the Complete Movie Trilogy, page 73
- ↑ "Don't worry, your severed fingers won't unlock your iPhone 5S" - CNET (see 'External links' below)