I remember when i was about 12 (10 years ago), i was taken on holiday to Orlando, Florida by my mum.
We stayed at the Holiday Inn on International Drive.
Whilst being 12 and extremely bored with sunbathing, my sister and i decided to go and find something to do around the hotel.
For some unknown reason i tried putting my hand UP a coke machine. On the roof of the compartment where the drinks drop out from, you could fit in two fingers through some golfball sized holes. To my amazement, i felt a number of banknotes literally resting on the on the top of this compartment where the drinks drop out. So i fiddled about and managed, easily, to pull a number of dollar notes out of the coke machine. Then it suddenly occured to me that there were approximately 20-30 coke machines situated around the hotel complex. Now of course, i am aware that this could be classed as theft and i put all the notes back, but has anyone else ever found this? and can you still do it?
The UK coke machines dont do this, but then again you cant put notes in a UK coke machine.
I sear this is true. I guess coca cola may have cottoned on now as this was over a decade ago, but how cool is that!
A little OT but it reminds me of when I was a student. We had a laundry in the basement of our building with the usual array of coin operated washers and driers. On one drier there was a small gap just above the money box which was normally covered by a chrome trim. Needless to say it didn’t take long to realise that if you inserted a strip of cardboard in the gap you could catch the coins as they fell. The place was littered with torn off strips of detergent boxes.
manny, I think he’s asking if you can still rob machines this way.
I don’t think the newer machines will allow you to do this. I’ve had to open and restock a machine before, and the bill taker actually folds the bills up into a neat little contraption that’s directly behid the slot you put the bills in. It is possible, though, that the person stocking the machine may have put some bills into a reserve pan near the bottom of the machine. There’s a sort of bucket thing near the bottom that catches the overflow coins, I think, and I know that we put bills in there when the bill taker got full or we needed to buy change from the machine.
I didnt “rob” the machines. I dont think i should be perceived as a crim just beacuse i was intuative enough discover the lack of security on coke machines!! Plus i was 12 and a fistful of dollars to me was the equivalent of a million pounds! i was right chuffed when i found them.
I always put the money back! honest guv!! heheheheheee…
At the risk of having another thread closed because it discusses criminal techniques, I think voltaire was refering to the fact that salt water = slugs as far as many older vending machines are concerned.
I/we are not discussing criminal techniques. I think it is quite funny actually that you used to be able to do this. this is a light hearted anecdote that i thought i’d share with you.
I am not instructing people to break open coke machines, i am not divulging secret company knowledge, i just thought it was humerous that not only did coke machines dispense fine liquid refreshment, but the also gave you money too! still makes me laugh.
Piig, the salt water can be used, in some machines of an older vintage, to short out the contacts of the machine and dup it into “thinking” you’ve paid. Soda for salt water.
Just in case Nemo’s explanation was a little confusing.
In college I had a job filling and servicing (no smart allec comments please) soda machines, and know the internal structure pretty well. Needless to say banknotes shouldn’t be in the storage area at all, and I suspect either:
A…The person who fills and collects the money forgot to replace the “basket” in which bills are fed into, and probably was pretty surprised when he next opened the machine to fill it.
B…The bills are fed into the “basket” via a little rubber conveyor belt-like thing. It’s possible that belt was somehow pointing outside the basket and thus dumping the bills inside the machine.
C…Least plausable of all. The service technician placed the money there while restocking the coin dispensor and forgot it there (really unlikely).
yeah but the curious thing was, that all 20/30 machines around the hotel ALL had dollar bills lying in the area i’ve talked about, all of them.
It would be some coincidence if all the coke machines had got so full that all their money boxes had started overflowing. Was it not the case that in the 1980’s the machines internal designs just basically werent very good??
All of them? That blows my theory. And you didn’t take advantage of it (you’ve more will power than me)?
You might be right about 80’s design bieng different, back then they could be fooled with photocopied dollars wheras today they check magnetic signitures on bills.
Magnetic signatures? No shit? I thought I read about a guy a few years ago who counterfitted money with a really good HP color laser printer and rice paper. I thought he said the copies worked in most vending machines. The HP printers had to be installed with a microchip after that to detect when money was being printed, and black it out. Plus, I didn’t think our money had any magnetic stuff, except maybe the new tens and twenties and such. Straight Dope?