In Or Out

[Bird Lives]

On Day One, 35 solvers left the couch and found the criminal they were looking for.
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For those still unsure which trail to follow, here’s a bit of help. More tomorrow.
In an earlier version of this puzzle, the prompt asked for “a criminal who sometimes changes letters.” [/lspoiler]

[benchen71]

The nudge helped! The couch is vacated!!

[DrTom]

Lifted off the couch after a series of unfortunate attempts. Nicely done.

[whimsy]

OTC --

Fun from start to finish! Thanks, Jay!

[ajk]

Late to the party due to traveling, but speedy solve once I got to it. Fun stuff, thanks.

[Bird Lives]

Eleven more solvers left the couch yesterday.

36. benchen71
37. THC
38. LindaPRmaven
39. DrTom
40. BrennerTJ
41. CPJohnson
42. whimsy
43. ajk
44. Gutman
45. Kulea
46. Mr Tex

For everyone else, here are the spoilers (including a repeat of the one from yesterday)

Six symmetrically entries, the themers, share a similarity suggested in the title.

In an earlier version of this puzzle, the prompt asked for “a criminal who sometimes changes letters.”

Changing letters suggests that the key to solving is to re-punctuate the title.

Think of it as “In. Or out.”

If that doesn’t do it, here’s the big shove.

A title even more descriptive of the mechanism would be “OR out. IN in.”

Some entries on first glance seem ripe for this substitution. But a.) they are not symmetrically located, and b.) the substitution does not result in a real word. Ignore them.

You know the drill. Each newly created word can be clued by the clue for another entry in the grid. Those alternate entries — first letters in their order in the grid — spell a six-letter word.

That word, however, is not the answer. To turn it into a type of criminal, you must make a now-familiar substitution

[hoover]

3a nudged off the couch, finally. I was concentrating on the wrong

► Show Spoiler

title word

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[schmidzy]

Needed the first of the "big shoves" but finally made it off this couch. Thanks for the clever challenge, Jay!

[Cinny]

Finally nudged off the couch. Misinterpreted the title and spent far too much time in that rabbit hole. Clever puzzle with great clues. Thanks!!

[Hidden in 3D]

As I reported on Crosshare, I needed nudge 3A to shove me off the couch! Thanks, Jay!

[Eric Porter]

Ugh, I needed the 4th nudge. I knew generally what to do, but of course I'd tried everything but that.

Thanks for the nudges and puzzle!

[sharkicicles]

Considering 1A, I’m calling this one Bird’s magnum anus.

[Streroto]

I had correctly guessed the meta and tried to backsolve but no. Needed whack on the head #4 to get OTC. Great grid and meta!

[Jeremy Smith]

I guessed the correct answer after the first nudge, but it took nudge 3A to prove my suspicion. Clever one! Thanks, Jay!

[JeanneC]

Do believe I am off the couch. Tough but super satisfying puzzle!
Get to see grand niece’s college walk in NYC via zoom this afternoon. (Guess I shouldn’t be such a Luddite.)

[Anita]

Off the couch, finally!

[Wendy Walker]

Solved with nudges. Thanks, Jay!

[MikeyG]

Ugh, embarrassed I didn't read the prompt and got pageanted there for a second! Still a lot of fun - thanks, Jay!

[Bird Lives]

Since the last report, another twenty solvers showed up bringing the total to sixty-six.

47. bhamren
48. hoover
49. DCBilly
50. Pair O Ducks
51. Cindy Heisler
52. Hidden in 3D
53. Eric Porter
54. DIS
55. Jaclyn
56. Johnny Luau
57. Sharkicicles
58. Dow Jones
59. Alvibu67
60. rayyandroid
61. Jeremy Smith
62. Carolyn
63. Anita
64. Mikey G
65. kurtalert
66. ELSavage

The criminal these 66 found was a FORGER.

The title “In Or Out” in this case meant that six entries required you to to put IN in and take OR out. The six new words formed by this switch had counterparts elsewhere in the grid — entries whose clue could also fit the IN/OR entry. The initial letters of those six entries spell FINGER. A finger, however, is not an actual criminal (though some solvers thought of “lightfinger,” and tried PICKPOCKET as an answer).
FINGER too required the IN/OR switch to become FORGER.

The wonderful graphic from @BrennerTJ makes it all much clearer than does the above paragraph.
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[DrTom]

Fun puzzle, particularly for us old FORTS.