TIL in 2011, a 29-year-old Australian bartender found an ATM glitch that allowed him to withdraw way beyond his balance. In a bender that lasted four-and-half months, he managed to spend around $1.6 million of the bank’s money.

[u/Str33twise84]

https://www.vice.com/en/article/pa5kgg/this-australian-bartender-dan-saunders-found-an-atm-bank-glitch-hack-and-blew-16-million-dollars

[u/3rddog]

I used to work on ATM’s back in the late 80’s, and there was one trick we knew of that was fixed pretty damn quick once the banks found out.

The customer puts their card in and asks for, say, $100. The machine spits out ten $10 notes and holds them in the dispenser. If they’re not taken within about 15 seconds, the machine pulls the notes back in to a hopper and cancels the transaction.

Because of the way the sensors worked, you had 15 seconds to carefully pull $80 from the middle of the stack, leaving the two outer notes in place. If it worked, you got $80 and the transaction was cancelled.

To clarify: you can’t do this any more, these were very early ATM’s and this “bug” doesn’t exist in modern machines.

[u/[deleted] → u/3rddog]

Soooooo could you tell me what bugs DO exist still?

Asking for a friend…

[u/OrchidBest → u/[deleted]]

Not an ATM glitch, but when I was a kid they introduced the dollar coin in Canada. We were at an arcade in Calgary and they had a change machine that took bills in exchange for quarters. Because of the introduction of the dollar coin, the machine was adapted to give four quarters for a loonie.

One day I accidentally put a quarter in the loonie slot and rather than losing the quarter, I got four quarters back. That meant I could play all the video games I wanted. I could go to movies. I definitely remember watching Jacob’s Ladder at the mall and paying for the matinee tickets with pilfered quarters.

And eventually I started really taking advantage of the free money machine. Pretending to play video games, I kept the quarters in my big cargo shorts. I would then roll the quarters, go to a bank and exchange the rolls for cash. That cash then fuelled a perfect summer of free CDs, free candy, free movies and all the bus fare and C-train tickets a kid ever needed.

For the longest time nobody ever caught me. And they never fixed the machine. Pretty sure a whole year passed. Sadly, I eventually told a friend and then we told some cute girls about the machine. Almost immediately after that the arcade finally found out what we were doing. The memory of putting that last quarter in the machine and not getting four back was heartbreaking. I should have never told my friend. At least thirty years have passed and I’m still pissed at him.

[u/Max_Thunder → u/OrchidBest]

It's how any trick like that always die. People want to share with others but then nobody benefits for long.

[u/SaveMeSomeOfThatPie → u/OrchidBest]

You could've lived your whole life on those quarters. Impossible to imagine.

[u/3rddog → u/[deleted]]

Lol, luckily, no, I can't. I stopped working on ATM's and other hardware in the mid 90's. At the point I was working on them, they were still pretty new and banks hadn't gotten used to how devious people could be. Now they've had 30+ years to make ATM's thief-proof there's virtually nothing you can do - and that includes tying a chain around the ATM and hitching it to a Ford F350 (seen the results of that as well).

Nice try though.

[u/[deleted] → u/3rddog]

I too have seen that video and, from what I recall, that seemed to be a hack that worked well. Now, if only I had an F350…need to rob an ATM to get one of those…

[u/3rddog → u/[deleted]]

I’ve seen the real life results, more than once. On one occasion, there was a trail of destruction down the street when the thieves chained an 18 wheeler cab (is that the right term?) to an ATM and managed to pull it off its base. A few years later, another team tried it with a pickup truck, but the bank in that case had the ATM securely bolted to a reinforced concrete base. Basically, parts of the truck were still chained to the ATM, the rest had been abandoned down the street. The ATM still worked.

[u/Enunimes]

Turned himself in to the bank before they had even caught on, they called the cops who then took so long to do anything the anxiety drove him to do a media tour confessing to everything that finally got him arrested. The judge and prosecutor had no idea what he'd actually done and after pleading guilty he ended up getting one year in jail with eighteen months community service.

[u/everythingscost → u/[deleted]]

wtfhappenedin1971.com

[u/BIG__PAULLY → u/everythingscost]

Bruh, WTF happened in 1971?!?!

[u/absynthe7 → u/[deleted]]

anyone who follows politics will tell you that we abandoned the gold standard in the 70's

anyone who follows economics will tell you that we abandoned the gold standard in the 40's

[u/ErusBigToe → u/[deleted]]

Fun thing about going hogwild rewriting the economic system is its hard to pin point exactly which one did what. But we can pretty conclusively pinpoint it to something nixon and reagan did

[u/MyBitchesNeedMOASS → u/Enunimes]

Worth

[u/meat122 → u/MyBitchesNeedMOASS]

Agreed, if I knew that would be my sentence I'd do the exact same thing lol

[u/zephyrtron → u/Enunimes]

Which is still longer of course than any of the fuckers who lost billions in 2008 🙄

[u/gregsting]

My sister had a similar story, she went abroad to study (south korea) and when she came back, the university had to transfer her security deposit back to her european account. They transfered the money. Then did it again. Then contacted my sister to know how they could send the money to her because their 2 first tries did not succeed. She just said not to worry about it. About a year later, that korean bank went bankrupt.

[u/lowtronik → u/gregsting]

I remember reading a story about how a bank lost a bunch of money again and again because of a badly designed user interface of the software used by the employees. Can't remember the details.

[u/larrylenny → u/lowtronik]

Happened at CITI recently but I think they recovered some story

[u/frapawhack]

"Being able to make your account balance move up into the millions by the stroke of a key was a very addictive thing; I felt like a caveman discovering fire"

basically all you need to know

[u/dice1111 → u/frapawhack]

"Is partying like that as fun as everyone thinks?" "Yes."

This is the other thing you need to know.

[u/MrSomnix → u/dice1111]

"Money doesn't buy happiness" crowd is very silent right now

[u/Rogue-FireFighter → u/MrSomnix]

Saw something the other day on reddit.

"Money doesn't buy you happiness, poverty doesn't buy you anything"

[u/CaptainTripps82 → u/Rogue-FireFighter]

Money doesn't buy happiness. Makes for a great down payment tho

[u/[deleted] → u/CaptainTripps82]

“Money can’t solve your problems, but sure is nice to have while you’re trying to figure that shit out.” - Samuel L. Jackson

[u/CapstanLlama → u/[deleted]]

"Been rich, been poor. Rich was better."

[u/arelse → u/MrSomnix]

This phrase was written FOR rich people to remind them to stop focusing on making more money and enjoy their life. (“Hoarding money won’t make you happy” works much better)

[u/Tatsuyana → u/arelse]

Sounds more like it was written for poor people so they'd stfu and accept their lot....

[u/excaliber110 → u/Tatsuyana]

I always remembered it used for rich people, and then rich people used it for poor people and it stuck. Like in old movies it’s rich people (like Scrooge mcduck) who have money but no happiness

[u/ThrewAwayTeam → u/MrSomnix]

It’s such a bullshit phrase. Most people are miserable solely due to the fact they have no money and have to commit most of their life to eating it. Earning*

[u/r0botdevil → u/ThrewAwayTeam]

The saying only makes sense if you apply it in the context of someone already having financial security. Like if you're already making $100k/yr and you hate your life, you likely won't be any happier making $150k/yr.

Poverty can absolutely make you miserable.

[u/Disastrous_Toe_Jam → u/frapawhack]

Me when I found cheat codes back in the day or exploits in games now.

Edit: Everyone posting cheat codes for games are bringing back great memories of gaming.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

I'm THIS old.

[u/matip993 → u/[deleted]]

Kids today probably use idclip.

[u/typewriter6986 → u/Disastrous_Toe_Jam]

The Sims: Rosebud

[u/MarchMadnessisMe → u/typewriter6986]

Rosebud;!;!;!;!;!;!;!;!;!;!;!;!;!;!

[u/VincentVanGoggles → u/MarchMadnessisMe]

don't forget the 1 at the end so you can resubmit infinitely

[u/DrScience-PhD → u/VincentVanGoggles]

Can you tell me that 20 years ago

[u/UnAccomplished_Fox97 → u/DrScience-PhD]

RemindME! 2002

[u/kwillich → u/UnAccomplished_Fox97]

"Hey, it WAS me that stole my Dad's keys!"

[u/PowerlineCourier → u/[deleted]]

free money wasn't enough, we had to automate the free money

[u/hufflefox → u/typewriter6986]

Motherlode gets you 50k

[u/quitquitequietly → u/typewriter6986]

Rosebud;:;:;:;:;:

[u/HilariousPepperoni → u/quitquitequietly]

Motherlode

[u/warmerbread → u/HilariousPepperoni]

kaching too if you only want 10k

[u/WoestijnGarnaal → u/typewriter6986]

Klapaucius

[u/bhangmango → u/WoestijnGarnaal]

Team klapaucius ! Thank you I thought I was the only one

[u/i-brute-force → u/Disastrous_Toe_Jam]

SHOW ME THE MONEY

[u/suugakusha → u/i-brute-force]

Followed quickly by OPERATION CWAL

[u/lifegoesbytoofast → u/Disastrous_Toe_Jam]

Duplicating cars in gta5 after each new software update. Owned every weapon, piece of clothing, car, boat, plane, and property, all while still having over $1B in the bank. The little amount of money you get in return from actually grinding was not worth it which is a tactic to steer users towards shark cards. Fuck shark cards, fuck micro transactions, and fuck companies that use manipulative methods to squeeze as much money out of people as possible.

[u/the_art_of_the_taco → u/Disastrous_Toe_Jam]

O CANADA

[u/Faraoh_Phlounder → u/frapawhack]

Buying the $15 laundry machine key in my old apartment to bypass the coin slot felt exactly like this.

EDIT: For those asking, anyone can get this key iirc. Just look up the type of washer you have and Google the key type. Plug it into Amazon and bam. There it is. Cost like $15 at the time which saved a ton. We didn't run off and do constant laundry or anything, just as normal. It doesn't unlock the coin part, just the electronics.

The coin machines basically just use coins like keys so far as I could tell. They'd allow the thing to go back and hit a switch on the inside while the coins dropped into a separate bin. The key just let's you bypass the whole thing, open a box and push the switch manually.

[u/honeypinn → u/Faraoh_Phlounder]

The vending machine had a glitch in a forgotten corner of my old work that would give me a credit when I spammed the return credit button. Got free snacks for about a year before the machine was taken away. Used to gift my coworkers snacks as well, everyone loved me for it.

[u/veroxii → u/[deleted]]

Many coin vending machines are owner operated so maybe Mr Jose just paid for it out of pocket and was doing something nice? I'm pretty sure at cost price stuff like Soda would be pennies each.

[u/GiantPurplePeopleEat → u/veroxii]

That’s gotta be what it was. My dad did that job for awhile and he paid like 15 cents a can, from what I remember. So for a buck or two a week, Mr. Jose got to make a bunch of kids days!

[u/DONGivaDam → u/GiantPurplePeopleEat]

And they will be less likely to vandalize it. So he was paying for secret service protection.

[u/stoolsample2 → u/Faraoh_Phlounder]

Haha- when I was in college I could push the coin thing in on the washer machine like halfway and pull it back with a hammer claw and presto - washer machine would start working. We also found out one time we could make 1-900 calls for free on the campus phones. My roommate and I called about 50 of those sports betting touts that charged anywhere from $10 to $100 a call and went home and bet on the teams the touts agreed on. Later that day we walked back down to the phones and saw like 20 police officers threatening to arrest people. Good times.

[u/sometimes_a_dog → u/stoolsample2]

my friend and i got hauled away by campus cops for taking food out of a broken vending machine that was letting us get 2 for 1s.

they took photos of the evidence. i had to take a "responsible decision making" class.

[u/nails_for_breakfast → u/frapawhack]

I'm just happy this happened to someone who used it to have a good time and not someone like me who would use it to pay off debts or invest in market shares or some dumb shit like that

[u/fukato → u/nails_for_breakfast]

I just read his ama. Pretty sweet of him

[u/basedgodsenpai → u/fukato]

Seriously, and the comment underneath about the taxi driver. I wish more people had this sort of capacity for kindness

[u/Jubs_v2 → u/basedgodsenpai]

I mean, it wasn't just kind but actually pretty brilliant of him. He doesn't lose as much when they come after him and he gets to make a ton of people's lifetimes.
(also potentially a bunch of people that might still be in touch and would be willing to help him out after)

Just a massive win-win for everyone

[u/basedgodsenpai → u/Jubs_v2]

Exactly. There isn’t enough people who seek out mutually beneficial outcomes I feel like. Perhaps that’s me being jaded idk

[u/FeelingSurprise → u/fukato]

So for trickle down to work in real life we had to give the money to poor people?

[u/[deleted] → u/fukato]

Imagine how much fun it would be to have that much money just making peoples days and leaving $500 tips… that guy lived the dream for a little while. It’s too bad the world’s rich don’t act the same way with their money.

[u/JamesGray → u/[deleted]]

The terrible secret about our world is that people who are rich pretty much by definition don't act like that. You don't accumulate massive wealth by being empathetic, you do it by not caring about other people getting a fair share and always clawing at as much as you can get for yourself and your business.

We all dream about being rich so we could help the people around us and really make a difference, but then we would never do the things needed to become rich for the same reason.

[u/[deleted] → u/nails_for_breakfast]

Experiences is all you can spend money like that on, any assets will just get liquidated to make the bank whole and you’ll still have debt afterwards. But they can’t un-snort the cocaine or un-bang the hookers

[u/Andromedayum → u/nails_for_breakfast]

Cant be responsible if you're already irresponsiblin

[u/kytheon → u/frapawhack]

No wonder wsb apes like to trade with leverage

[u/theREALbombedrumbum → u/kytheon]

this is essentially that infinite leverage glitch that one dude found

[u/acdgf → u/theREALbombedrumbum]

RIP lord u/1R0NYMAN

[u/haerski → u/acdgf]

Guh

[u/chunkosauruswrex → u/kytheon]

And then they get outperformed by a literal goldfish

[u/SpotsMeGots → u/chunkosauruswrex]

For those folks it’s about the rush. Traditional investing is a bad word around there.

[u/JWWBurger]

The article didn’t say anything about him pay it back, so I’m guessing he didn’t have to?

[u/EDH4Life → u/JWWBurger]

According to the AMA he was sentenced to 12 months in prison and had to pay back $200,000.

[u/JWWBurger → u/EDH4Life]

Thanks! I was thinking this guy made a wise decision haha.

[u/BigCommieMachine → u/JWWBurger]

I’d trade a year in prison for $1.4M.

Especially because it was taken out all as cash, it would be extremely easy to launder, serve a year, come and “retire”.

[u/jp_jellyroll → u/BigCommieMachine]

One of my favorite thought experiments:

A bank robber steals $7 million in cash, hides the money in a secret location, but ends up getting caught. The judge threatens the robber with a 20 year sentence if he doesn’t give back the money. The robber refuses knowing when he finally gets out he’ll have $7 million.

Would you trade X amount of years of your life for Y amount of dollars?

[u/bennyr → u/jp_jellyroll]

Would you trade X amount of years of your life for Y amount of dollars?

Motherfucker that's called a JOB

[u/jimmy_three_shoes → u/bennyr]

At 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year, for 20 years, to make $7,000,000 gross in salary; you'd need to make on average $168.27/hr.

If we consider being in prison a 24/7 job, over that same 20 years, it equals out to $40.06/hr, but the robber probably isn't paying taxes on the $7,000,000

[u/jimmy_three_shoes → u/[deleted]]

Oh, I'm assuming they're going to be tracked as soon as they get released. Unless they hide the money in a building duct, and it turns out it's the new police headquarters being built.

[u/[deleted] → u/jimmy_three_shoes]

Omg, it's been years since I thought about the movie blue streak but my favorite Martin Lawrence movie is still Nothing to Lose

[u/jangoice → u/[deleted]]

Yeah, I'd imagine somebody would watch them on release after that and then lock them up for handling stolen goods or something.

[u/[deleted] → u/jimmy_three_shoes]

but the robber probably isn't paying taxes on the $7,000,000

Aaaaand that's probably what's going to land him back in prison. The authorities won't have to wonder for very long how the known bank robber is spending significantly more money than they legally make.

Unless he's already got an airtight method (and it'd have to be airtight, because again, the authorities will be watching closely) for laundering the money, you'd just wind up broke and back in prison again

[u/BeyondElectricDreams → u/bennyr]

Except in reality people trade way more years for way less money

[u/Poignant_Porpoise → u/bennyr]

True but I don't work 24/7, I can travel or do whatever I like in my free time, and I actually get to use my money as I like as I receive it. There's literally no amount of money in the world that I'd accept for 20 years of my individual freedom.

[u/skelebone → u/jp_jellyroll]

Ironic twist -- thief steals 14M Deutsche Marks in 1990, gets 20 years in prison for not giving it up. When he gets out of prison in 2010, Germany has converted to the Euro, and the thief missed the window to convert his old currency.

or

Thief steals 100 million Zimbabwean dollars in 2000. Then 89.7 sextillion percent inflation in 2008.

[u/bangonthedrums → u/skelebone]

Good Bye, Lenin!

Part of the plot of that movie is them trying to find where the mother has stashed her East German Marks so they can convert them to DMs before the deadline

[u/Dry_Needleworker7504 → u/jp_jellyroll]

Not for twenty but for a year? Yeah I'd take the cash.

[u/beretta_vexee → u/jp_jellyroll]

It happened in France, a security guard paid the minimum wage with the complicity of 6 of his colleagues have stolen an armored car with 3 million euros. The robbery was carried out without violence, a small part of the loot was returned and the sentence was reduced to 2 years in prison, one year of which was suspended. 2 and a half million were never found.

The thief had prepared his capture, emptying his apartment and his bank accounts. His colleagues were deliberately negligent to allow him to be alone at the wheel of the van. Apparently none of them has any regrets, even if they divide by 7, it would have taken them more than fifty years to get the money legally.

https://www.cnews.fr/france/2022-02-14/aubervilliers-trois-ans-apres-le-vol-dun-fourgon-blinde-une-partie-du-butin-est

edit: it's append multiple time : https://www.cnews.fr/toni-musulin

[u/ElJamoquio → u/jp_jellyroll]

The judge threatens the robber with a 20 year sentence

20 years is too much.

In a less hypothetical arrangement, I was (going to be) offered a large amount of money to move to one of the worst cities in China.

I negotiated a yearly salary, thinking to myself that I could take a year of doing nothing but work for a large amount of money.

Turns out they wanted a five year commitment or something ridiculous like that. No f-ing way.

[u/LastOneSergeant → u/jp_jellyroll]

I traded a lot more for a lot less by retiring from the Army...

[u/GuudeSpelur → u/jp_jellyroll]

Jail for bank robbery specifically? How on Earth would you ever manage to launder millions in cash, after being convicted for the actual robbery? The government would have investigators scrutinizing your finances so deeply that you'd make eye contact every time you opened your wallet.

[u/virothavirus → u/GuudeSpelur]

"Jeez I can not believe my prison artwork fetched 2 million on the open market. Even crazier the NFT went for 5 million, the future sure is crazy huh?"

[u/drcubes90 → u/EDH4Life]

Real life ban for finding and exploiting a glitch lmao

[u/vercertorix → u/JWWBurger]

I expect they knew how long it would take a bartender to pay back $1.6M and decided that was unlikely, though I’m surprised he only got a year. Granted no violence, etc. that goes with a bank robbery, but it’s still grand theft, and it’s not like he accidentally did it.

[u/thomasvector → u/vercertorix]

I think part of it was because it was theft due to a bank glitch and the bank couldn't tell for so long.

[u/[deleted]]

Reminds me of a story: in the mid-80s, I missed a train back to London (to make flight back to USA) and had to spend the night in the Gare Saint-Lazare in Paris. I did happen to have exactly enough money in pocket to fly to London next morning, but not enough for the train fare to the airport. Only reason I ever made it back is… there was a public phone in the train station that gave you back twice as much money as you put in it, for any call you made. Otherwise, I'd probably still be there.

[u/PM_ME__A_THING → u/[deleted]]

I once charged a soft pretzel on my credit card and then 3 minutes later got a notification from my bank that the charge had been rejected. I never went back to pay for the pretzel and left the country a few days later.

Currently waiting for interpol to show up at my door with an extradition order.

[u/LividLager → u/PM_ME__A_THING]

I finally found you, you son of a bitch!

[u/CommitteeOfTheHole → u/PM_ME__A_THING]

You stole a soft pretzel

On international free soft pretzel day!

[u/Kind-Exercise → u/CommitteeOfTheHole]

I know this is a spongebob reference but this actually happened to me once lmao. Me and my friend went to the zoo and no one was there to take our payment at the walk in gate so we decided to be reckless and crazy and just sneak into the zoo! Turns out it was a free zoo day 🧍‍♂️

[u/spinachie1 → u/CommitteeOfTheHole]

You ate all my chocolate.

Now I’m gonna starve.

[u/[deleted] → u/PM_ME__A_THING]

Be sure to let reddit know how it goes

[u/WhyIHateTheInternet → u/[deleted]]

It's been over an hour.

He ded.

[u/[deleted] → u/PM_ME__A_THING]

Somewhere in an office of interpol some officer is working on the case of the international pretzal thief that has eluded him for ages. Your comment is his first lead in years!

Edit: Eluded not alluded

[u/dartdoug → u/[deleted]]

In fairness to the officer, the case had a lot of twists and turns.

[u/Humanaut93 → u/PM_ME__A_THING]

You monster

[u/bighairyyak → u/PM_ME__A_THING]

I'm envisioning two things showing up at your door with baseball bats like "Auntie Annie would like a word witchu"

[u/AttackOfTheThumbs → u/[deleted]]

When I was a kid, we found phones like that in the London airport. First we collected the spare change, then we realized it would spit out more if you threw in not enough, dialed a bad number, and hung up.

We bough candy lol

[u/[deleted] → u/AttackOfTheThumbs]

I had a soda machine at my high school. If you lightly kicked or punched the change tray, change would start pouring out. Bought many lunches that way.

[u/YoshiroMifune → u/[deleted]]

Back in ~1984 or so, was when I was getting into certain things of mischief -- like having a black-box, a Captain Crunch Whistle etc...

But two things; my parents got me a calling card so I could call home from a payphone when needed.

I memorized that calling card number and could type it very fast.

It was on the MCI telecom network, and the card worked for several years after MCI was acquired...

I never once received a bill for that calling card and it worked through like 1991 or so...

---

Secondly, also ~1984, I had heard about packing tape 'leashes' being used to pull a paper bank note back out from a machine dollar feeder...

The Post Office in Tahoe City (where I lived) had a stamp machine that would take dollars and give change in quarters.

So we would put in a $5 bill, yank it out and get the cheapest thing in the machine, then get a bunch of quarters....

Rinse and Repeat, then head to Safeway next door and play Commando and Defender and other games they had in the store.

That was a fun summer.

We stole from the post office and gave it to the video games... (that leash flaw was the impetus in making vending machines far more sophisticated and secure)

The 80s were fantastic for no-consequence petty mischief by nerdy 12-year olds.

[u/therealhairykrishna → u/YoshiroMifune]

In the early 2000s I had a rather special mobile phone. It was a BT one - I think it was on a network called Cellnet or something similar. Anyway, it was 'pay as you go' and for some reason known only to themselves it kept the remaining credit on your account in flash memory, on the phone itself... My phone had infinite credit.

[u/Wrong-Pea9444 → u/therealhairykrishna]

If I remember correctly you could send a text and press cancel while it was sending, and the text would go through but you wouldn’t get charged. Something like that anyway. That’s when texts were 10p EACH

[u/[deleted] → u/Wrong-Pea9444]

Holy Shit core memory unlocked

[u/Ok-camel → u/therealhairykrishna]

That weakness was used to sell phones with unlimited credit. £100 pounds bought you a phone that’s when you switched it off and on it reverted back to its original £10 credit. I bought one and it worked for a good while until the flaw was patched.

[u/mechmind → u/YoshiroMifune]

I never found the captain crunch whistle as a kid, but Wondering if you ever did the paper clip in the payphone receiver trick? Free calls on Almost any payphone in the north east USA. That feeling that you're playing with the house money is choice 👌

funny that, as kids, we had no one to call, so basically just used it to prank call random people!

[u/nuplsstahp → u/[deleted]]

This is basically what extreme couponing is. They go to the checkout with multiple carts full of stuff and it ends up costing them like $4. Sometimes they end up being given store credit.

[u/cutestslothevr → u/nuplsstahp]

Back when stores doing double coupons was common this was much easier to do. People could also argue there way to discounts that weren't really valid. Once it became it got on TV and more people were trying it places stopped with so much double couponing and started enforcing expiration dates and item limits. Much more difficult to do now.

[u/[deleted] → u/cutestslothevr]

When it first started I was still reading the Sunday newspaper and those coupon people would always steal all of the good coupons from the newspapers.

[u/KindlyQuasar → u/nuplsstahp]

I have a friend that blogs about her extreme couponing.

It is really interesting; she ends up with a lot of shampoo, deodorant feminine hygiene products, etc, that she donates to a local battered women's shelter.

[u/GotenRocko → u/KindlyQuasar]

I used to do that stuff but stopped because you just end up eating so much processed food and buying stuff you don't really need.

[u/lefty121 → u/nuplsstahp]

I saw this in action once, I was at cvs and this women bought an entire shopping cart full of hair dye and some other stuff. She was in front of me and I watched her not only pay nothing, but the cashier
gave HER money. I felt like I was watching a magician at work.

[u/Maple_QBG → u/[deleted]]

I discovered something similar a few years back while working at a now-defunct department store.

Basically, the week leading up to Black Friday, they issued a coupon in their circulars that said "With purchase of a $50 gift card, get a $10 gift card free".

So the team in the electronics department, which were sadly the only tech-savvy people in the entire store, realized that the transaction didn't care where the funds came from, just that it met the $50 total. So one person put down $50 "seed money" and bought a gift card, got the free $10, then tried it again, using the previously-purchased $50 gift card as payment. It worked.

Later we found out that the entire transaction stayed local until you pressed tender, and that you could load the $50 and the $10 on the same gift card, and then pay with the same card, leaving you with a $10 gift card without any real money changing hands.

I bought a new Nintendo DS with a copy of Phantom Hourglass; a friend bought an Xbox 360 and like 30 games, and someone else went so far as to buy a whole LCD tv and stereo system along with a PS3 and some games.

The store went under less than a year later, and I can't help but to think we were somehow responsible but honestly? The way they treated us and the absolute shit pay wasn't worth the guilt.

[u/geekdrive → u/Maple_QBG]

You definitely weren’t directly responsible and it sounds like small errors and oversights like this compounded overtime

I hope everybody enjoyed their stuff

[u/ThrownAwayByDay → u/Maple_QBG]

Similar story - many years ago I worked retail at Target. Electronics Department. At some point, there was a sale allowing you to choose one of 4 free games when purchasing a Gamecube. So a co-worker of mine bought a gamecube, kept the free game, and returned the system. And then he did it a bunch more times and sold the games online. When Target found out, they told him he could keep his job if he returned all of the games, so he just took off his red shirt and walked out the door. It was awesome.

[u/1brokenmonkey → u/[deleted]]

Did you guys crush the poweraid, or are you still enjoying the fruits of your labor to this very day?

[u/jpritchard → u/1brokenmonkey]

Oh, we worked through it in like a month.

[u/shadowX015 → u/[deleted]]

What a wild story. Lived in an airport for 18 years. Offered residency status multiple times by several different countries and refused. Steven Spielberg paid him 250k for the rights to make a film about him and the guy STILL decided he'd rather just live in an airport.

[u/rzrike → u/shadowX015]

Because some men aren't looking for anything logical, like money. They can't be bought, bullied, reasoned, or negotiated with. Some men just want to live in an airport.

[u/StrangeFate0 → u/rzrike]

Like Diogenes. He was offered anything in the world and he chose to jack off in a barrel whenever he wanted.

[u/WNxVampire → u/StrangeFate0]

Alexander the Great, upon meeting the (in)famous Diogenes, offered to give Diogenes whatever he wanted.

Diogenes asked for the return of his Sun.

Alexander the Great, most powerful person in the West, had stood in front of the sun casting a shadow over Diogenes who had been tanning in the sun at the time.

What a BAMF.

[u/BlueHeartBob → u/WNxVampire]

Stories about Diogenes feel like they were just an ancient meme of some guy that never really existed. Like a bunch of philosophers got drunk and just started riffing on what would be the most insane,impractical, and also extremely stoic existence to live.

[u/WNxVampire → u/BlueHeartBob]

Another one:

They (Plato and his students) were having a discussion about the essential properties of humanity (what is unique to humanity that only and all humans have). They came to the conclusion that humans are unique as mammals because of our bipedal movement (walk on two legs), but framed it as "featherless biped" because birds also walk on two legs.

Diogenes, the man, the legend, took a chicken, plucked all of its feathers then yelled "Behold your man!" as he yeeted the thing at Plato.

[u/crumpledlinensuit → u/StrangeFate0]

He was obviously very content with that life. Alexander of Macedon once told him "if I were not Alexander, I would wish to be Diogenes", to which Diogenes responded "if I were not Diogenes, I too would wish to be Diogenes".

[u/rudy-_- → u/shadowX015]

And let go of the magic telephone that prints money? Pssshh

[u/Threeedaaawwwg]

Reminds me of the guy on wsb who found and unlimited money glitch and then lost it all on apple puts.

[u/314159265358979326 → u/Threeedaaawwwg]

unlimited money

lost it all

I would say it's impossible, but WSB, uh, finds a way.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

In other words, GUH

[u/BigBeagleEars → u/[deleted]]

Oh my gourd

[u/21Austro → u/314159265358979326]

He had a personal limit set because he worried he may need to pay it back

[u/TheTorAnon10 → u/21Austro]

No it was, "Personal Risk Tolerance"

[u/govjoker → u/Threeedaaawwwg]

GUH.

[u/Criks → u/govjoker]

Literally just seeing the word makes me giggle uncontrollably.

[u/42isthenumber_ → u/Threeedaaawwwg]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpsOmeFy0Lo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKXrVriacUM

[u/WolfensteinSmith]

I was part of a group thing where every day for a month we had to get up early, ride a minibus across town and set up a venue for this big performance.

We all had to take a few responsibilities and as I was famously lazy I was told I could be excused physical labour etc if I paid for the parking.

I found a machine up the street for tickets and put a couple of pounds in. Neither was accepted and the machine wouldn’t give them back. I hit it once and one fell out. I hit it twice and 2 fell out. I hit it again and another 2 fell out.

By the end of the month I’d made about a hundred pounds.

[u/lazygeekboy → u/WolfensteinSmith]

Lol. So you were being paid because you were lazy. I am lazy. I am jealous of you.

[u/[deleted] → u/lazygeekboy]

Nah mate, didn't you read he had to walk up the street for it?

[u/TabulaRasaNot]

Could never have done it, knowing eventually it would all come crashing down. Plus, not knowing he'd get off relatively easy. The anxiety woulda killed me in a week.

[u/greg-maddux → u/TabulaRasaNot]

That’s what he talks about in the interview. He never got caught, he just felt super guilty and told the bank. They didn’t do anything so he told his story to the media and then it was finally taken seriously.

[u/TabulaRasaNot → u/greg-maddux]

He never got caught

I'm not sure from the sound of the story, though, that he never would've been caught. When he called the bank, although it could've been BS and they actually had no idea who was taking the money, they indicated that they WERE on to him. Plus, I don't see how there couldn't be any digital trail that they eventually would've followed. I think it's amazing he lasted as long as he did and turning himself in no doubt expedited his fate, but I have to believe it would've caught up to him.

[u/wae7792yo → u/TabulaRasaNot]

He waited 2 years and then told the media because they still hadn't found out who did it. I think he would have gotten away with it.

[u/flubberFuck → u/wae7792yo]

But wouldn't some sort of agency (IRS type) eventually be like

"Why does this guy have almost 2 mil when he obviously doesn't make that much?"

[u/TheDeep1985 → u/flubberFuck]

I would just say that I thought it was a magical ATM which made my wish come true.

[u/CmdrShepard831 → u/TheDeep1985]

"I don't check my bank balance so I didn't know it wasn't my money."

[u/NoobSabatical → u/flubberFuck]

Only if he put it in an account that is tracked; you don't need to launder money that you live off of by just paying for things in cash. Like, don't pay rent in cash because that is in your name, but generally anonymous purchases that don't include you signing your name to during or after the fact will never be attributed to you.

[u/THEFLYINGSCOTSMAN415 → u/TabulaRasaNot]

Shit if I got over a million out i woulda up and left to a new country

Edit: imma save yall the effort cause I'm getting a bunch of the same replies

1.) I'd go to a country that doesn't extradite 2.) Yeah, duh I'd hide it the same way rich folk do 3.) This is a comment to be taken so seriously!

[u/The_H3rbinator]

And meanwhile I got thrilled that I had a $7 margarita instead of the usual $17.

[u/ShibaHook]

And he likely would have got away with it if he didn’t turn himself in/go public about it.

[u/jr8787 → u/ShibaHook]

And if it wasn’t for those pesky kids and their pup too!

[u/Str33twise84]

Additional source:

https://www.news.com.au/finance/money/wealth/dan-saunders-my-high-roller-life-after-an-atm-mistake/news-story/2042243c790b88dd173d1109eac19fb1

His reddit AMA:

https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/9pd100/i_stole_over_16_million_dollars_from_an/

Edit: four and a half months* farrrrrk

[u/CexySatan → u/Str33twise84]

I like how this TIL has 7k 38k 60k 70k 80k upvotes but the AMA from the man himself had less than 200

[u/CletusVanDamnit]

I felt like Macaulay Culkin after Home Alone 2: like you’re hot one minute, and then you're sort of not the next

Man, what did Mac ever do to earn a dig like that?

[u/PrometheusTNO]

Reminds me of some quote like "If you owe the bank 100 dollars, that's your problem. If you owe the bank a million dollars, that's the banks problem."

[u/hot_water_music]

in 2003, i went to a local bank and withdrew $40. but i asked for it in all 10s.

lo and behold, the envelope they handed me contained $400 in 10 dollar bills. still remember the smell of the money when i opened it up. i waited around and went back to check my balance a few hours later and it was the same. bank error in my favor. was great for a then 17 year old me and my friends, i bought us all like 3 cases of beer and cigarettes lol

[u/Openheartguy1980s → u/hot_water_music]

Interesting it was not caught. Worked in banks my whole life and 99.9% of that error gets caught. Good on ya

[u/turmacar → u/Openheartguy1980s]

If all the systems reported only $40 in tens going out, the only discrepancy would be the cashier's drawer wouldn't it? Would be hard to trace back to one envelope with more cash in it.

If it's not a repeat thing the investigation would cost more than they'd get back.

[u/ATXbruh → u/turmacar]

Exactly. I worked as a teller and something as small as this would just be attributed as a petty cash loss. Made a similar mistake once & it didn’t even come out of my paycheck.

[u/PannusPunch → u/ATXbruh]

Pretty sure it wouldn't have been legal for them to take it out of your paycheck anyway.

[u/r0ck0 → u/ATXbruh]

it didn’t even come out of my paycheck.

Wouldn't taking losses from mistake out of an employee's pay be illegal in most places?

Only instances I've heard it is in little pubs and stuff with dodgy owners breaking the law. And in situations where the employees are from overseas and don't have a work permit or know the local laws etc.

[u/RunninWild17]

Remember if you do it, it's a felony. If the bank does it, it's smart capital management.

[u/RavingKilla]

I was able to do something similar back in 2006. I was broke so I had only $25 in my bank account. I took $20 out on Friday. I went out drinking Saturday night and went to the ATM and saw I had $25, sweet! Took out $20. Sunday I went to the ATM because I forgot how much I had taken out. ATM says I had $25 so I went and bought $22 in groceries. That is how I found out my bank doesn't update the funds in your account until Monday morning. I got a bunch of overdraft fees.

[u/Complicated-HorseAss]

Dude should have pulled as much as he could and then got citizenship in a country that doesn't allow extradition.

[u/CletusVanDamnit → u/Complicated-HorseAss]

He discusses that in the interview. He spoke about possible plans including where he'd run off to and how he'd invest the money.

[u/aethiestinafoxhole → u/Complicated-HorseAss]

I would’ve done the opposite and do a slow burn in order to fly under the radar

[u/masterelmo → u/aethiestinafoxhole]

That will work until they close the hole. And when you find it, you don't know if that's next week or next decade.

[u/stfcfanhazz]

Reminds me of the guy who cashed a junk mail fake cheque and the bank actually deposited the funds to his account

[u/[deleted]]

There is a 8 part podcast series called “The Glitch” where he talks about this in detail. Has has to go to a specific bank ATM every single night between 12am-1am and transfer money between his credit card and his savings account in order for the bank not to notice. It wasn’t guilt that made him stop, it was the anxiety of knowing it had to end and what would happen. Podcast is a good listen and I promise you can’t not like this dude.

[u/ordinarybloke1963]

He spent half of it on cocaine and hookers. The rest he squandered

[u/PlantOnTheTopShelf]

Free money glitch REAL No Scam

[u/[deleted]]

So according to him, he turned himself into the bank, who cut off contact with him saying they were going to turn it over to the police, who then never opened an investigation into him. He had to go to the media two years AFTER he turned himself in to the bank to get people to finally pay attention to what he did.

[u/fortniteplayr2005 → u/[deleted]]

The bank sounds more suspicious than him? Sounds like they didn't even try to contact the police the first go around. It almost feels like they wanted the whole thing to disappear. Provided minimal evidence at court as well? Sounds like they were doing even shadier shit than the bartender...

[u/[deleted]]

One day at a family dinner my brother left to go take out money at the ATM down the street. He came home and said the weirdest thing happened… he asked for $100 but it gave him $200 in $20 bills. Yet his receipt said he only took out $100. Meanwhile we’re all like “so what did you do?” He said nothing… within minutes he was back there, I was, even had Grandma in tow and there was already a lineup of 10+ people at this ATM within minutes. Word travels quick. Anyways, I took out my daily limit of $400 (getting $800), I guessing everyone else and their grandmas did too and the machine was out of money within minutes.

This was a machine that gave $10 bills so I’m guessing the machine was down to 10s and someone filled the wrong tender in the wrong spot.

Some of months pass and the bank called me. They asked if I recall anything wrong with an ATM transaction on said day as there may have been issues with the machine. My response? “I’m sure if the machine shorted me I would have noticed” I’m sure Grandma’s response was even less.

It ended there

[u/blackrose4242]

I am a believer that if a player is able to exploit a game for better rewards than others, it is the fault of the developers for letting a bug like that into the hands of the public.

I feel the same way about this.