I was helping an operator change some machines on his route in the Miami area about 11 years ago, and we found some pretty scary stuff in the box of a Centipede, after we had moved the cabinet 20 miles to a new location. ( A .38 snub that had recently been used, several bags of illegal material, and $2500 in small bills.)

All I can remember is the color going out of my operator friends face, and him going "ooohhhhhhh shhhiiii_______" when he opened the Centipede box at the new location.

He asked me what he should do, and I asked him if he knew who left the items in the box. He didn't know. He'd never had this happen before. My idea was to put the original Centipede lock on the under door of the Food Fight machine, and stick the items back into the Food fight box. This way, whoever left the stuff in the Centipede would be able to get the items out of the Food Fight.

Just as he gets done putting the original Centipede lock back in the Food Fight, and putting the items in the food fight coin box, in walks 2 guys that look like they're ready to cut both of our heads off. I don't think either of them could speak English. The larger of the 2 is holding a key, and pointing to the coin box.

The other is holding a crow bar, and I couldn't tell if he was going to use the crow bar on us or the coin box.

My operator friend then pointed to the key and pointed to the food fight box, while furiously nodding his head up and down. The bigger guy walks up to the cabinet with the key, opens the coin box, removes the items, counts the money, and puts all the items into a rolled up shirt.

He then looks at my operator friend, and looks at me with a "what happened" look on his face. My operator friend then starts gesturing wildly with his arms, and pointing down the road to the direction we took the Centipede, and then pointing back to the Food Fight.

At this point, the larger guy's face lit up, and he says "ahhhhhh....." and nods his head. He then puts his hand on my operator friend's shoulder, and says "no switchie on Tursdays..." I think he handed my operator friend a $100, and patted him on the shoulder. The smaller guy with the crowbar handed me $20,and both of them left. Needless to say, we both had to check our pants after this was over.

My operator friend explained to me that one of the conditions of having a route in their territory was that they get the box keys for what machines they want to "use". He said after he gave the original guy the box key, he never saw him again. He never found one quarter missing from any coin boxes. He had never seen the 2 guys we ran into before, but I don't think he will ever again make machine changes on his route on a "Tursday".......


Sorry for the long story, but I thought it was interesting.

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