Detecting 'zwartkijkers' - the aluminium foil hoax

APR 01 1969

On 1 April 1969 the Dutch television news announced a nationwide operation to track down 'zwartkijkers', people who had not paid their TV licence, using inspectors with scanners. Asked whether anything could defeat them, an inspector remarked he could not imagine anyone wrapping their television in aluminium foil. Shops sold out of foil within hours the next day. NOTE: several aggregators date this 1971; the Dutch history programme Andere Tijden dates its own archive footage to 1 April 1969.