Coinstar to the rescue.
If you remember a few weeks ago, we told you about the story of Andreas Flaten. The Georgia man was given his last paycheck of $915 in oil-covered pennies after a dispute with the auto shop that he formerly worked for. The 91,000 pennies were dumped in his driveway (along with his final paystub) and Flaten has been stuck ever since cleaning a wheelbarrow full of pennies so that he could cash them in.
If only there were a company whose entire business was cashing in loose change…
Well obviously there is, and now the Washington-based company Coinstar has helped Flaten cash in his pennies.
Coinstar operates loose-coin changing machines all over the country, so a few oily pennies was no big deal for them. The company showed up at Flaten’s to collect the change, and even rounded his $915 up to an even $1000 for his trouble.
In a statement, Coinstar said that the pennies would be cleaned and ultimately returned to circulation.
“When we heard about Mr. Flaten’s penny problem, we were happy to offer our assistance. Coinstar has been in the coin business for 30 years and we process approximately 41 billion coins annually – so picking up 91,000 pennies was all in a day’s work.”
And in addition, Coinstar also made donations matching Flaten’s penny value to two charities of Flaten’s choosing – two Atlanta-area animal shelters.
So while the pennies may have been an annoyance, everybody comes out ahead at the end of the day.
Well except maybe Coinstar – but they can probably handle a few thousand loose pennies.
