ATM Repairman Accused of Taking (and Faking) Cash 258
fysdt writes "An ATM repairman was nabbed in Phoenix on charges of having stolen about $200,000 in ATM funds. His method was almost brilliant in its sheer stupidity: He pocketed the cash, and replaced it in the machines with 'counterfeit or photocopied $20 bills.'"
Re:Photocopied? (Score:5, Interesting)
More realistically, he was probably an opportunist, possibly with a newfound need for fast cash, and good counterfeit currency, while certainly not impossible to make or obtain, is not something you can just get ahold of in a moment. Were a sophisticated counterfeiting operation looking for a dispersal method, an ATM service dude might be a useful 'hire'. A random ATM service dude probably doesn't know how to just look up the local counterfeiters...
Re:what's the difference? (Score:2, Interesting)
Gold has actual value in our physical world, learn why. [youtube.com]
As to the value of it being 'arbitrary' - however the relative value is decided, it's stable.
2003: 1 ounce of gold was USD350, one pound of cotton was USD50.
2011: 1 ounce of gold over USD1500, one pound of cotton over USD200.
Notice anything?
Re:what's the difference? (Score:2, Interesting)
I really shouldn't respond, but I can't resist. By 'real money' do you mean gold? Gold is only good for trade since we all agree that it is worth something. This is the same reason that money printed by governments is worth something: we all agree that it is. Gold is in the middle of a huge bubble right now. If it were traded like a normal commodity it would be worth way less. Once people stop being so paranoid it is going to crash hard. Also, since it is constantly being mined, it too is constantly getting devalued.
I may have been wrong (Score:4, Interesting)
Those in category 1 would usually be annoyed that they had funny money but would be cooperative. The other 2 categories no so much. Very often these people would become belligerent and when informed that I would be bringing in the police would get threatening. The worst case was one individual who had tried to pass a counterfeit $100 bill that he had run off on his home ink jet printer. The colors were all wrong, incorrect weight, incorrect texture, was cut wrong (used scissors), missing the water mark, missing security strip, and also failed the counterfeit detector pen.He insisted that the bill was real as he had just gotten it from the ATM (our ATM only Dispensed $20s) and that he had a wallet full of them now, yes he really did show me a pile of counterfeit $100s. When informed that I was calling the cops he threatened me stormed off. The nice thing was that the Eagan police station was only a couple of blocks down the road. So while I was calling the police he was stuck at the light waiting to turn right heading towards the police station. I was able to give the police a complete description of the person, car description, and license plate number. The picked him up about half way between the gas station and police station.
Re:what's the difference? (Score:4, Interesting)
You are way off base on the number of reasons why gold is money and would have been money if it all had to play out over again
found the full version [npr.org].
0. It cannot be printed by politicians to buy elections.
1. It's rare, but not too rare.
2. It's easy to test (chemically or with ultrasound for thick bars).
3. It's easily recognizable.
4. It has no major industrial use.
5. It does not change over time, drop it in the ocean, recover it centuries later and it's the same.
6. Easy to work with (easy to split, melt, mint coins, etc.)
7. It's stable, it does not explode, it's not a poison, not radioactive, not a gas, does not corrode, does not decay radioactively.
8. People like it, it looks nice.
Point is those ARE intrinsic values. Saying they are not is like falling into the homunculus theory of mind fallacy, where you expect things to be reduced forever, and this infinite regress would not answer the question of what is really your mind vs what is the observer. We are physical beings, not spirits, we live in physical world, and things we value are physical because they allow us to get things we need for survival.