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Salim Kara stole $2M in coins with a magnet and a car antenna (2022)

nofreelunch.co.uk

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Re: Salim Kara stole $2M in coins with a magnet and a car antenna (2022)

#191

Post by joncrocks »

ben_w wrote: post #28

Interesting. A litte after that time, aged 13-14, I was interested in coin pusher machines[0], which (despite being gambling) were not age restricted where I lived. Obviously I wanted a way to do better than the system allowed and wanted to know if I could use magnets to pull the coins towards me[1]; some research showed that some "coppers"[2] were magnetic and others weren't, and that it seemed to depend on the date…

Newer 'coppers' are magnetic, older ones are not.

https://www.royalmint.com/stories/collect/why-are-some-uk-co... - the composition of 1p and 2p coins was changed from bronze to copper-plated steel in 1992 and the composition of 5p and 10p coins was changed from cupro-nickel to nickel-plated steel in 2011

Re: Salim Kara stole $2M in coins with a magnet and a car antenna (2022)

#192

Post by eschneider »

evan_ wrote: post #21

Passing it off as proceeds from a vending machine business was smart, I wonder if he actually had a fleet of vending machines to make that plausible. Of course you’d need to be able to show receipts for cost of goods sold… money laundering is hard!

Having an actual fleet of vending machines would be an excellent cover for such a scam, but even if they're unprofitable, you still need do do some amount of work to maintain that cover. Soon, the cover story becomes an actual 'job' and you have to wonder if you're pulling in enough cash with the crime to rationalize it.

Re: Salim Kara stole $2M in coins with a magnet and a car antenna (2022)

#193

Post by sirmike_ »

No my dear Kara. Coins have three sides. Can't forget the edge.

"Before his sentencing in March 1996, Kara made an enigmatic statement in court, promising at some point to share his side of this fascinating tale “Remember, every coin has two sides”

Re: Salim Kara stole $2M in coins with a magnet and a car antenna (2022)

#194

Post by mempko »

nicgrev103 wrote: post #66
mrtksn wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's actually pretty common criminal activity in banking, where an employee will take money from accounts of clients and "gamble" it on high-return short term investments. Obviously I won't be naming Banks here but what usually happens is: 1) If they succeed in their investment they put the money back and walk out rich. Their venture can be detected during an audit some time later but if there's no money missing th…

Isn't this literally what banks do? Take peoples deposits paying a minimal interest rate and then invest that money to earn a return higher than the interest rate they pay the customer (they actually will also borrow more money on the back of your deposit). So, when it's the bank doing it it's ok but a bank employee doing it independently for personal gain it's an issue. The book deal aspect was interesting also. So,…

No, banks don't take deposits and invest that money. Banks don't loan out deposits. The opposite is true, loans create deposits. Banks make money off the spread in the interest of their loans to deposits (which are usually zero ore almost zero). Also fees, they make money off charging fees.

Re: Salim Kara stole $2M in coins with a magnet and a car antenna (2022)

#195

Post by mempko »

dkasper wrote: post #129
nicgrev103 wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't this literally what banks do? Take peoples deposits paying a minimal interest rate and then invest that money to earn a return higher than the interest rate they pay the customer (they actually will also borrow more money on the back of your deposit). So, when it's the bank doing it it's ok but a bank employee doing it independently for personal gain it's an issue. The book deal aspect was interesting also. So,…

Not quite because it’s almost backward with banks. Yes they take your deposits, but to the bank a deposit is a liability not an asset. Banks can lend out much more than their deposits (fractional reserve) but they technically don’t even need deposits at all to create a loan, because a loan is credit (asset) and a liability to the borrower. This means banks in the modern sense can literally create money, so they don’t…

To add to what you said, fractional reserve banking is really not a think. Many countries don't have any fractional requirements and in some it only applies to certain kinds of loans.

Re: Salim Kara stole $2M in coins with a magnet and a car antenna (2022)

#196

Post by Scoundreller »

StayTrue wrote: post #175

Lots of confusion here about what such a meter actually looks like. See the start of this [0] document for a photo. It’s an older photo but I remember the same from Edmonton in the 1980s. No digital display, no thermal printer, etc. They were numerous — one meter for each parking spot. Later in the subject’s tenure they were swapped for digital display/timer meters with the same form factor (still no printer). https:…

That’s a parking meter though.

I think this guy snagged money from the light rail transit ticket/token system.

Funny how parking meters can be somewhat standardized, meanwhile every transit system seems to want to design/build its own solution.

Re: Salim Kara stole $2M in coins with a magnet and a car antenna (2022)

#197

Post by Topgamer7 »

londons_explore wrote: post #44
toogan wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But surely they would have a counter of how many tickets were sold in a machine?

I do wonder if the repairman had the ability to reset/twiddle with that counter...

It literally calls this out in the article folks. Leadership attributed it to a software bug and didn't look into it further.

Re: Salim Kara stole $2M in coins with a magnet and a car antenna (2022)

#198

Post by Scoundreller »

whycome wrote: post #151
kvdveer wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having your books off by a few percent is indeed quite common. However, missing 20% on your primary source of income is not the norm. If a company would report that nowadays, it would trigger a money laundering investigation.

Was the cash box here the primary source of income??

Probably not: their (1?) LRT line was just 1 chunk of their transit system, and systems generally have a weekly/monthly/student pass to uhhh, reward their heaviest users.

Re: Salim Kara stole $2M in coins with a magnet and a car antenna (2022)

#199

Post by Scoundreller »

StayTrue wrote: post #175

Lots of confusion here about what such a meter actually looks like. See the start of this [0] document for a photo. It’s an older photo but I remember the same from Edmonton in the 1980s. No digital display, no thermal printer, etc. They were numerous — one meter for each parking spot. Later in the subject’s tenure they were swapped for digital display/timer meters with the same form factor (still no printer). https:…

I did a quick google search, and this is what the LRT ticket machines looked like in 1988:

https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpreview.redd....

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