Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

No one could have predicted…

This isn’t Democrats spending madly. This is government catching up.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

The line between political reporting and fan fiction continues to blur.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

We know you aren’t a Democrat but since you seem confused let me help you.

Not all heroes wear capes.

Oppose, oppose, oppose. do not congratulate. this is not business as usual.

the 10% who apparently lack object permanence

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

Books are my comfort food!

If America since Jan 2025 hasn’t broken your heart, you haven’t loved her enough.

The revolution will be supervised.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

After dobbs, women are no longer free.

She burned that motherfucker down, and I am so here for it. Thank you, Caroline Kennedy.

Giving up is unforgivable.

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

Jack be nimble, jack be quick, hurry up and indict this prick.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

Conservatism: there are people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

Republicans want to make it harder to vote and easier for them to cheat.

You are here: Home / Economics / Free Markets Solve Everything / True Crime: Rich Uncle Pennybags (Open Thread)

True Crime: Rich Uncle Pennybags (Open Thread)

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When I was a kid, we got a big kick out of the McDonald’s Monopoly game. You know, where little plastic tags are on the packaging, and when you peel them off, there’s Monopoly pieces or instant-win codes on them? Anyway. My older brother was convinced that it was a scam, that all of the big-ticket winners were fakes. McDonald’s put them there, the story went, to trick people into thinking that winning was possible.

As it turns out, from about 1995-2000, almost all of the big-ticket winners were fakes, but they weren’t put there by McDonald’s. The chief of security at the company that printed the tags was stealing them, and laundering them through dozens of associates. The Daily Beast has a crazy long-read up detailing the rise and fall of said security chief, the real Hamburglar, Jerry Jacobson.

Before each bi-annual game, Jacobson arrived at the drab Dittler Brothers’ office at 5 a.m to observe their Omega III supercomputer making the McDonald’s prize draw. He watched the printing presses that roared for 24 hours a day for three months, using 100 railroad cars of paper to print half a billion game pieces. . . Jacobson observed technicians applying the “INSTANT WINNER!” stamp to blank game pieces, and pioneered random watermarks that deterred counterfeiters. He locked the winning pieces in a vault behind coded keypads and dual-entry combination locks. It was Jacobson who personally scissored out the high-value game pieces and slipped them into envelopes, before sealing each corner with a tamper-proof metallic sticker. In a secret vest, of his invention, Jacobson transported the winning pieces to McDonald’s packaging factories across the country.

[…]

The 1980s was America’s “decade of greed,” and it was Jacobson’s job to create instant millionaires. Playing God was intoxicating, as was holding a stranger’s fate in the palm of his hands. . . It was a thrill to protect the Monopoly promotion, and only a natural part of his job to consider the system’s fallibilities. But soon the temptation to steal had become irresistible.

One day in 1989, at a family gathering in Miami, Jacobson slipped his step-brother, Marvin Braun, a game piece worth $25,000. “I don’t know if I just wanted to show him I could do something, or bragging,” Jacobson later admitted, but he just needed “to see if I could do it.”

[…]

The judge sent him to jail for 37 months. He did not pass go.

Apparently the reason this didn’t capture our imagination as the White Collar Trial of the Century is that the trial began on September 10, 2001.

It’s well worth a read, if you’re looking for something to pass the time in what’s left of your evening. Me, I have a Scalzi out from the library I need to tend to. Open thread!

Reader Interactions

68Comments

  4. 4.

    efgoldman

    from about 1995-2000, almost all of the big-ticket winners were fakes

    :::GASP::: tell me it’s not true
    I lived thru the quiz show scandals of the 50s/60s, so nothing really surprises me.

  6. 6.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?

    I’m worried about what the effects of GM Lordstown’s possible closure will be on the local economy. It employs thousands directly and indirectly. Several local companies supply parts to the plant. More over, I’m afraid what this will mean for where I currently work. A lot well-paying union jobs will be lost. Just very concerning is all.

    This is partly because Lordstown is been geared towards mid-size cars like the Cruze that unfortunately aren’t selling as well the last two years or so.

  9. 9.

    Corner Stone

    But soon the temptation to steal had become irresistible.

    Assholes gotta asshole.

  10. 10.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?

    @Omnes Omnibus:
    What the fuck are you talking about?

    ETA: Never mind. Makes sense in context. Didn’t read the first few comments of the thread. No, I’m not an obscure and abandoned McDonald’s side mascot.

    Those guys all got dropped didn’t they. Can’t remember the last Ronald McDonald was in a commercial.

  14. 14.

    jharp

    I read the entire piece earlier today.

    My take was that crime pays as long as you steal from the masses.

  19. 19.

    chopper

    had a kid-free couple hours so took in some good sushi by the waterfront. waiting for the middle of the week when the temperatures drop a little.

  26. 26.

    opiejeanne

    Hey, M4. Which Scalzi? I think there’s a current one I haven’t read yet. Head On?

  31. 31.

    Elizabelle

    I think John Lewis may be resting at home. Be well, John Lewis. Your work is not done. WaPost:

    Lewis remained in the hospital through Sunday afternoon. In the evening, his spokeswoman Brenda Jones released the following statement:

    Rep. John Lewis has been released from the hospital this evening. All tests have been completed, and doctors have given him a “clean bill of health”. He thanks everyone who shared their thoughts, prayers and concerns during his stay.
    Lewis’s political legacy dates to the era of racial segregation, when “he was arrested, brutally beaten and continually bore witness to death in the pursuit of equality under the law for African Americans,” as Jonathan Capehart wrote for The Washington Post.

    The son of black sharecroppers, he became one of the original Freedom Riders fighting for racial integration. He spoke at the March on Washington as a young man in 1963 and has served as Congress’s living link to the civil rights battles since he first won office in 1986, representing Georgia’s 5th Congressional District.

  39. 39.

    cthulhu

    I worked at a McDonald’s for a few months when I was in high school. This was pre-Monopoly days but they did have a scratch-off trivia game where you could win mostly food prizes. I’ll admit we skimmed some of the cards from the supply for customers. Employees technically couldn’t play and redeem so we had to go to a different store to with our winners (which I guess in some positive way, we researched at the library to get the correct answers).

    This was also the era when they would still have events with Ronald McDonald and associated characters. Always a complete madhouse on those days. Still remember a time in the break room where the actor Ronald for the day regaled us with tons of dirty jokes while in full costume.

  45. 45.

    L85NJGT

    @? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?:

    Early in 1970, the advertising agency Needham, Harper and Steers contacted Marty Krofft asking if the Kroffts would be willing to work with Needham on an advertising campaign for the McDonald’s hamburger chain based on the H.R. Pufnstuf characters. Various telephone conversations followed to discuss the concept, and on 31 August 1970 Needham sent a letter saying it was going ahead, but soon after Needham telephoned to say the campaign had been cancelled. Needham had in fact won the contract for the campaign, hired former employees of the Kroffts to work on the sets and costumes, and hired the person who supplied the H.R. Pufnstuf voices to make the voices for several of the McDonaldland commercials, the first of which was broadcast in January 1971.

    The Krofft’s eventually got a million from McDonalds

  47. 47.

    Brachiator

    Whatta coinkydink. McDonald’s is about to unleash a new promo.

    It’s not exactly pennies from heaven, but McDonald’s is planning to make it rain coins to celebrate the Big Mac’s 50th anniversary.

    Starting at the lunch rush on Thursday, customers can receive a MacCoin with the purchase of a Big Mac at 14,000 participating restaurants across the United States, McDonald’s announced Sunday. 

    And what’s the coin good for? Another Big Mac.

    Customers can redeem the new currency for a free Big Mac starting Friday and running throughout the rest of 2018.

    https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2018/07/29/mcdonalds-unveils-maccoin-celebrate-big-macs-50th-anniversary/844522002/

  49. 49.

    MomSense

    Clowns = Nope
    pandas are cute but I’m not obsessed with them. Same for otters, koalas, and hedgehogs.

    Fuck IPhone for showing me the emoji when I typed the scary c word . Even the emoji clo_ns are scary.

  50. 50.

    NotMax

    …and a good time was had by all. Pix were snapped (not by fumble fingers me) and are promised to be sent to a front pager

    Scaffolding on the front of the building where the pub was, with a banner affixed announcing “All new BJ’s coming in fall of 2018.”

  56. 56.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?

    @Ohio Mom:
    I don’t live in Lordstown. I live in the local area. And I’m still a 1.5 years away from that.

  58. 58.

    L85NJGT

    @Brachiator:

    I want to say, at some point, they gave out Pesos in Happy Meals. Then there was the ’84 summer Olympics, when they gave out free food for USA gold medals, and when the Eastern Bloc boycotted, they took it in the shorts. That one seems a bit specious – wouldn’t they run that through underwriting? MDs whole business strategy is to get you into the store or drive-thru. They give a free sandwich with every receipt. If they could, they would make team members suck you off instead. It would be cheaper than the freebies, and get more return visits. Just something to keep in mind the next time you see a franchisee squawking about having to provide even the barest of healthcare coverage to the drones.

  62. 62.

    Mai Naem mobile

    Arizona has a state lottery Beyond Mega Millions and Powerball. I’ve had my suspicions that it’s rigged because it it seemed like the big winners (not that many) were rural areas which statistically just does not make sense. I thought maybe the state was trying to direct money to rural areas that were having a hard time economically.

  65. 65.

    meander

    The “Lost Notes” podcast from KCRW (Los Angeles/Santa Monica) has an episode about a different McDonald’s competition, the Flexi-Disc contest. McDonald’s sent out 80 million of these thin flexible 45 RPM records, and just one of them was the $1 million winner. They tell the amazing story of a family in Galax, Virginia that won the prize. Grab with your favorite podcast service, or listen here: https://www.kcrw.com/news-culture/shows/lost-notes/a-million-dollars-worth-of-plastic

    (The Lost Notes episodes about the NYC pirate radio station WBAD and the complicated history of “Louie Louie” are also excellent)

  67. 67.

    daryljfontaine

    @opiejeanne: Just finished Head On on Saturday; once you start it has a momentum to it that makes it hard to put down, and it reads very quickly. The prologue is such a good hook.

    D

  68. 68.

    JGabriel

    The Daily Beast via 4x Major @ Top:

    The 1980s was America’s “decade of greed…”

    And the 1990’s, and the 20-oughts, and the 20-teens, and …

    Really, it’s been two score years of greed starting with Reagan’s inauguration.

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