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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)

#201

Post by hinkley »

codeulike wrote: post #119

Stealing 2 million, one coin at a time, over 13 years, mostly at night, by waggling a magnetised car antenna through a small slot for hours and hours, is actually hard work. Its like the opposite of The Shawshank Redemption.

There was that couple in New England where the husband figured out there was a lottery ticket that was nearly guaranteed to return a slight profit if nobody won the previous couple of weeks.

Several articles were written about them, I think I saw an ad for a movie even, but it took both of them working very long days to pull this off, including standing in convenience stores for hours at a time pushing buttons. I think they ended up making less than $100 an hour between them.

Which is a better job than many people can get, but if you're retirement age in a job you can actually retire from, then this is more about Sticking It to the Man than about getting rich.

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

#202

Post by shadyfroyo »

TedDoesntTalk wrote: post #160
whycome wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Looks like all current Canadian coins can be picked up -- $1, $2 .25, .05, .10. (couldn't test pennies as Canada hasn't had them for a while). I suspect US quarters would have the same makeup

US quarters cannot be picked up by magnets.

American coin mechanisms in vending machines and arcade games have magnets to filter out Canadian quarters.

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

#203

Post by Tao3300 »

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!

If anyone asks, tell them the receipt comes out if they shake it!

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

#204

Post by codelikeawolf »

dghughes wrote: post #148

Making $17/hr in 1994 is equivalent to $31/hr in 2023. Then again it was Alberta so even minimum wage workers were probably making $17/hr back then since housing costs would have been nuts, or anything really.

He was making $17/hr in 1981, which is over $58/hr in 2023. I imagine he probably got raises, although they probably didn't match inflation.

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

#205

Post by Scoundreller »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #95
nikanj wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This was decades ago, the ticket machines were not real-time connected to anything. It's entirely possible the numbers accounting used for ticket sales was the amount of cash retrieved from the machines, and there was no separate system keeping track of the tickets printed.

Wouldn't they be able to measure the rolls of ticket paper? And mechancial counters were a thing in 1981 as well. I mean the machines had a way to say "you need to pay X amount" or a way to count money, surely that can be fed into a daily / weekly counter, a printed record, etc. And also, they were pretty precise with the amount that he stole: they can't bring a guess to court, they had an exact record of how much wa…

If they trend it, auditors should still notice it, but different tickets cost different amounts, so there will be variability.

E.g. Kids and seniors get discounts.

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

#206

Post by npteljes »

_heimdall wrote: post #178
npteljes wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe that people have the opportunity to learn about banks' dealings, which is to an extent mandated by law. This can't be said about the person stealing the funds for their high-risk investment. Consent is a difficult topic though, I agree. For example, what choice does a person have, not use banks at all? I don't think that's realistic.

Have you ever tried calling your brokerage firm, if you own any stocks or a 401k, to ask them who owns the actual shares you purchased? $10 says they won't give a straight answer unless you ask just the right question. Eventually you'll find that there isn't a share you own directly, its effectively an IOU claim to a share. People can technically learn how the system works, but that leaves a lot of gray area there. W…

I'm sure I wouldn't understand their answer, even if they would give it to me 100% truthfully. In fact I just recently learned about the share IOU thing you mention too. And I'm somewhat interested in the topic too, so I too think that people in general understand it even less. Same for medication.

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

#207

Post by hinkley »

badcppdev wrote: post #2

That is absolutely disgraceful on the part of the accountants and programmers who should have been reconciling the cash vs sales. Over 13 years!

Spread out that's still $150k a year. Someone should have noticed >12k a month disappearing.

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

#209

Post by StayTrue »

Scoundreller wrote: post #196
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.

You’re right!

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

#210

Post by hinkley »

psychlops wrote: post #163
badcppdev wrote: post #2

That is absolutely disgraceful on the part of the accountants and programmers who should have been reconciling the cash vs sales. Over 13 years!

Complicit would be another word to consider.

When you get an asshole boss, people stop defecting when they see others getting away with stuff.

I'm not sure I could ignore outright theft. But I've definitely ignored - and watched others ignore - sandbagging, particularly when it has followed burnout.

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