Puzzler about buttons and spies

The Show
1

I’m going to take a guess since it is Thursday.

SPOILER … page down to see my ideas

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SPOILER – READ NO FURTHER IF YOU DON’T WANT TO ENGAGE IN PREMATURE PUZZLER SOLUTION SPECULATIONS

Puzzler: Our spies hide secrets in hollow coat buttons, which the top unscrews. Enemy discovers this, and twists every questionable button to see if they are the secret holding kind. Our spies do something (presumably simple) that prevents enemy from discovering the button is the secret holding type.

Idea 1. New buttons are made with reverse threads. The enemy tries to unscrew them, but they won’t budge, b/c they unscrew CW, not CCW.

Idea 2. New buttons are made with hinges, so they open like charm pieces with little doors. Twisting them won’t work.

2

Idea 1 is the correct answer, its an old show.

3

So they just bought the buttons from Chrysler?

4

Yeah but they had to buy a lot of them because they had to throw away the passenger side buttons.

5

There supposedly was a similar solution to the problem of incandescent light bulbs being stolen from subway cars in New York City before fluorescent lights were used. Some thieving passengers would snitch the bulbs for use in their homes. If guards were placed over the bulbs, the thieves would remove them. Finally, the subway authority had bulbs and sockets made with left hand threads. The thieves most often gave up trying to unscrew the bulb. If a thief did figure out that the bulbs had left hand threads, the bulbs were of no use anyplace but the subway.