Watch out for the $20 coin
Posted by drocolate on May 20th, 2009
A man went into an ice cream shop in Lykens, Pennsylvania last week and paid for his ice cream with something that he claimed was a coin worth $20. He managed to convince the clerk at the Willow Tree Ice Cream shop that the coin was something that the government had just issued. The hapless clerk gave him change and he drove off.
Here are the three things that amaze me about this story.
1. I’m amazed that this is a news story at all.
The dude stole $20 total. Maybe $4 in ice cream and the rest in cash. I understand that he did it with a fake coin but we’re still talking about $20 here. If some dude buys a Bentley with a $100,000 shell (wampum) then I’d say that’s newsworthy. But ice cream theft and a $20 coin? Nope.
2. I’m amazed that the guy who stole the ice cream is being painted as the bad guy.
The real bad guy is obviously the inept clerk at the Willow Tree Ice Cream shop. If this clerk would have just known that the idea of a $20 coin is pretty much (I say “pretty much” because of the third point below) ridiculous maybe they would have held their ground and not surrendered the goods. All I know is that I’m already planning a trip to Lykens to do some shopping. The only money I’ll be bringing with me will be my $31 marble, my $4 rubber band, my $1,000 glass eye and my $40 chicken bone.
3. I’m amazed that the government has actually produced a $20 coin in the past.
There have been a few different $20 coins made in the past 150 years. All of them are labeled as extremely rare now. A new one was actually unveiled last year at the World’s Fair of Money, so I guess it’s possible that this ice cream theif stole that ultra rare coin a year ago and then decided to blow it on an ice cream. Yeah, I don’t think so.
What an AMAZING story. AMAZING!
Tags: ice cream, idiots, Pennsylvania, theft
Is it a crime to steal ice cream to feed your starving family?
Yes, it’s a crime to feed your starving family ice cream, out of all things to steal.