A "funny" money-related story for today: Man accused of stealing $450,000 from Coinstar kiosks. Details:
He's accused of stealing around $450,000 from grocery store coin-counting machines in three states.
Lynnwood police believe Michael Burns, 39, ripped off the machines while working for Coinstar Inc.
They allege Burns, of Maple Valley in King County, wore a company uniform when he walked into stores and used inside knowledge to break into the kiosks, according to court documents.
That's a lot of pennies! ;-)
These guys amaze me. Don't they realize once the receipts stop balancing with the cash in the machine, someone may look into it?
Posted by: BudgetCents | May 14, 2008 at 03:14 PM
The irony of the story is that he got caught at a Coinstar machine while trying to redeem the 45,000,000 pennies.
Posted by: MonkeyMonk | May 14, 2008 at 03:25 PM
I can't believe that CoinStar is still around...
People want to gripe about a 1.50% mutual fund expense ratio? Or the price of gas? But will pay 9% to have their freakin' change counted...
I wonder how many years it took for 450K to be stolen...
Posted by: Zook | May 14, 2008 at 04:03 PM
Actually, the CoinStar service has been free for quite a while as long as you're willing to exchange you change into a gift card. My local kiosk offers both Starbucks and Amazon gift certificates and I always opt for those since I shop at those stores anyway. Getting cash for your change is still 9%.
Posted by: MonkeyMonk | May 14, 2008 at 05:00 PM
I'm sure CoinStar makes MORE than %9 on those giftcards. I know when I save change, I am not saving for an amazon gift card.
Posted by: zook | May 14, 2008 at 08:28 PM
Interesting. He'd have been better off selling the coins for scrap metal value.
Posted by: Big Cheese | May 16, 2008 at 01:39 AM