Do not pass Go. Do not collect $200.
July 29, 2018 7:49 AM   Subscribe

 
I used to work in a place that handled the winner phone calls for the Canadian version of this game. And it was funny seeing my coworkers play. They don't care you win some french fries but if you win a big prize, as someone who works on the game you're never, ever going to see it.
posted by thecjm at 8:10 AM on July 29, 2018 [3 favorites]


She was the “McQueen” of McDonald’s, said Joe Maggard, a disgraced Ronald McDonald actor who was convicted of making harassing phone calls while posing as the clown.

Wait, what?
posted by Chrysostom at 8:39 AM on July 29, 2018 [34 favorites]


To ensure winners were truly chosen at random, there were no game pieces or prize boards. Instead, a prize patrol tapped random customers on the shoulder.

As I recall, several winners (such as the later mentioned ex-homeless fellow) were hand-picked by the store staff to win prizes. Because that seems like a perfectly fine solution when you're trying to make up for a scheme in which the winners are hand-picked.
posted by dances with hamsters at 8:56 AM on July 29, 2018 [7 favorites]


With the scheme still in full-swing, the FBI needed to team up with McDonald’s to catch Uncle Jerry and his crew red-handed.

I'm smelling a buddy-cop movie. (It smells like a McRib.)
posted by Halloween Jack at 9:10 AM on July 29, 2018 [5 favorites]


Without the tip-off, seems like they would've gotten away with it. McDonald's didn't REALLY care that money was getting to customers, only about the publicity. As long as the "game" increased sales, the payouts didn't really matter.
posted by rikschell at 9:19 AM on July 29, 2018 [4 favorites]


I'm imagining FBI agent Dwayne Johnson teaming up with McDonald's rep Kathy Bates to take down schemer William Macy.
posted by SPrintF at 9:20 AM on July 29, 2018 [27 favorites]


Everything he did was overseen by an independent auditor. On flights she sat in coach, while Jacobson flew first class, where he tried to impress other passengers by flashing his old police badge. On one flight, Jacobson and another security manager sent an air steward back to show the accountant the empty liquor bottles they’d guzzled.

Who would have imagined that this guy would turn out to be shady? I mean, who could have predicted it?
posted by GenjiandProust at 9:21 AM on July 29, 2018 [25 favorites]


That year, Ronald McDonald and Monopoly’s Rich Uncle Pennybags rang the opening bell on Wall Street
I thought that was just a Banksy.
posted by RobotHero at 9:22 AM on July 29, 2018 [21 favorites]


My wife and kids go crazy for this thing every year. Read the article earlier today, kinda amazed I had no memory of the whole thing taking place.
The colorful court case, held in Jacksonville, Florida, started September 10, 2001 ... which explains why so few Americans remember the scandal, or how it ended.
Oh, yeah. That would indeed explain it.
posted by Frayed Knot at 9:31 AM on July 29, 2018 [20 favorites]


Jacobson’s $70,000 salary was six times his police officer’s pay

There are a lot of things wrong with that sentence but cops in the 80’s made like 11k a year? That seems... low. That’s $5 a hour. I made that in 1988 at the mall.
posted by greermahoney at 9:31 AM on July 29, 2018 [12 favorites]


It’s always an inside job.
posted by sudogeek at 9:41 AM on July 29, 2018


So the article leaves me with two questions:
What ever happened with the whole Canada thing?
and
"FBI stationary"? StationAry?? Even in the pull-quote?!?!
posted by feistycakes at 9:57 AM on July 29, 2018 [9 favorites]


... a secret vest of his own invention

Seems legit
posted by q*ben at 10:02 AM on July 29, 2018 [4 favorites]


Never hire an ex-cop.
posted by maxwelton at 10:18 AM on July 29, 2018 [3 favorites]


It’s always an inside job.

Not always. We've had a few stories here where the lottery or casino games were cracked by outsiders figuring out a flaw in the code or game design.
posted by explosion at 10:34 AM on July 29, 2018 [5 favorites]


Jacobson’s $70,000 salary was six times his police officer’s pay

There are a lot of things wrong with that sentence but cops in the 80’s made like 11k a year? That seems... low. That’s $5 a hour. I made that in 1988 at the mall.


He started as a cop in 1976 in Hollywood Fl, when Miami was still the middle of nowhere (compared to now). A 1973 NYT piece says 5-year beat cops in New York made $16,000. So maybe some exaggeration but not much.
posted by toodleydoodley at 10:43 AM on July 29, 2018 [4 favorites]


Hamburgler.
posted by jeather at 10:53 AM on July 29, 2018 [5 favorites]


As I recall, McDonald's ended up having to pay the Simon Marketing damages for breach of contract, instead of the reverse. You'd think "what we paid you for turned out to be a giant fraud" would be a legitimate reason for firing a company, but apparently not.
posted by tavella at 11:06 AM on July 29, 2018 [4 favorites]


What ever happened with the whole Canada thing?

Well after they burned down our White House, they’ve been pretty awesome neighbors.
posted by Celsius1414 at 11:12 AM on July 29, 2018 [21 favorites]


Seeing as how McDonald's allowed this to happen, doesn't that mean they breached lottery regulations by publishing erroneous odds? It seems like they would be wide open to class action lawsuits from consumers, and maybe the justice department or IRS.
posted by Brocktoon at 11:34 AM on July 29, 2018 [4 favorites]


when Jacobson enquired where he was headed, Colombo unzipped a bulging purse full of $100 bills, and said: “Atlantic City.”
That's rather on-the-nose for a Monopoly-related heist.
Baker’s companies owed nearly $30,000 in back taxes, and county tax officials had started to sell parcels of his land at auction.
...and so is this.
posted by mbrubeck at 11:45 AM on July 29, 2018 [20 favorites]


Jacobson’s $70,000 salary was six times his police officer’s pay

There are a lot of things wrong with that sentence but cops in the 80’s made like 11k a year?


Police pay/salaries are often quoted (even by the cops themselves) as just the 40-hours-per-week base pay while ignoring all-but-mandatory overtime, holiday, vacation, etc. bumps.
posted by Etrigan at 1:18 PM on July 29, 2018 [3 favorites]


a disgraced Ronald McDonald actor who was convicted of making harassing phone calls while posing as the clown.

I choose to believe he dressed in full costume and makeup before making these phone calls.
posted by rokusan at 6:51 PM on July 29, 2018 [6 favorites]


I choose to believe he dressed in full costume and makeup before making these phone calls.

Then sat in a darkened living room, feet in big clown shoes up on a hassock, drumming his fingers together... "soon, soon..."
posted by Halloween Jack at 7:49 PM on July 29, 2018 [2 favorites]


Brenda steals $500,000.00 as a pawn in a rigged Monopoly game.
Brenda gets busted by the FBI complete with video evidence.
Brenda serves no actual jail time but has to pay back $50.00 a month.
Brenda makes 50 years of payments and is still ahead $470,000.00
Brenda plays Monopoly LIKE A BOSS.
posted by HappyHippo at 9:09 PM on July 29, 2018 [16 favorites]


So the article leaves me with two questions:
What ever happened with the whole Canada thing?
and
"FBI stationary"? StationAry?? Even in the pull-quote?!?!


There was also the word "trail" for "trial." How do two major mistakes like that get by an editor? Even for a website?
posted by kuanes at 5:08 AM on July 30, 2018


It bothers me that both of these errors have been corrected, but with no footnote stating the article had been edited after publication.
posted by xedrik at 7:09 AM on July 30, 2018 [1 favorite]


Eh, I think a note should be included for any substantive edit, but isn't really necessary for simple typo correction.
posted by Chrysostom at 9:07 AM on July 30, 2018 [4 favorites]


This is a really fun read as it abuts so many of my personal childhood memories of the McDonalds Monopoly game. I vaguely remember the St. Jude's donation but not sure if I heard of it via the news or school cafeteria legend. Also I would've sworn the first game occurred around '93... however on retrospect it may be akin to every person believing Pepsi debuted the "Pepsi Generation" ad campaign aimed at teenagers around the time they were a teenager (spoiler alert, it debuted in 1963). I'm also glad that 9 year old me was smart enough to figure out there were probably thousands more Park Place tokens than boardwalk tokens and thus not be too enticed by finding one with my coke. Or maybe that was something my Uncle told me.

Also I like how every narcissistic white collar criminal had a few years when they could sneer "if only you'd been investigating terrorists with the zeal you've been investigating me... etc etc" to FBI. I wonder how many other compelling but less consequential stories are lurking in the early aughts waiting to be told.
posted by WonderFunGo at 9:20 AM on July 30, 2018


I have a hard time being annoyed at McDonalds getting ripped off, considering they were already ripping off Canadians. I would have liked to hear the government getting involved with false advertising claims if none of the high value prizes ever made it to Canada though....
posted by Canageek at 9:42 AM on July 30, 2018


Dent found a map of the state, and pinned the addresses of Hughey, Chandler, and Phenis. He had uncovered a 25-mile golden triangle of suspicious McDonald’s winners, and at its center was the lakefront home of Jacobson.
These crooks really need to get out more often. I realize the fact that I know far more people in states other than in my own is a testament to privilege. . . but, cripes, these idiots weren't even trying. When you're getting a $45k kickback on every ticket, spending the weekend finding marks in a city you don't live in seems like a pretty obvious step.
. . .Joe Maggard, a disgraced Ronald McDonald actor who was convicted of making harassing phone calls while posing as the clown.
There's surprisingly little press about the guy. But, the Guardian's Australia facebook page has a copy of a video documentary from 2015. I've not found any details regarding the phone calls, though it is mentioned in news articles.

I'm a bit sad to learn that my teenage dream of robbing McDonald's while dressed as the Hamburglar probably wouldn't even have been among the three most notable McDonald's-related criminal news events.
posted by eotvos at 1:10 PM on July 30, 2018 [2 favorites]


I have a hard time being annoyed at McDonalds getting ripped off

It wasn't really McDonalds that was getting ripped off, they were going to pay out the winnings no matter what. The people getting screwed over were anyone that played the contest in earnest.

There's surprisingly little press about the guy. But, the Guardian's Australia facebook page has a copy of a video documentary from 2015. I've not found any details regarding the phone calls, though it is mentioned in news articles.

There was also a youtuber dedicated to getting his name removed from a Ronald McDonald Show Imdb listing.
posted by drezdn at 7:36 AM on July 31, 2018 [1 favorite]


Why would they have to rig the game to not have winners in Canada? Why not just make the contest exclusive to players in the USA?
posted by GoblinHoney at 11:27 AM on July 31, 2018 [1 favorite]


From start to finish, this is a compellingly-written, gripping write up. Thanks for posting.
posted by smokysunday at 12:40 PM on July 31, 2018 [1 favorite]


Because a major contest that is exclusive to Americans will PISS OFF Canadians so much that they will lose huge market share. If we assume that the US has 10x as many people playing, on any given year it wouldn't be surprising if the major winners are American, and people wouldn't remember year on year those details.
posted by jeather at 2:06 PM on July 31, 2018 [1 favorite]


Fox, Ben Affleck & Matt Damon Win Hot Package On Multi-Million Dollar Theft Of McDonald’s Monopoly Game - Mike Fleming Jr, Deadline.com
EXCLUSIVE: Fox is poised to win the hot lit property in the marketplace at the moment, a giant Happy Meal that everyone wanted. Ben Affleck is attached to direct and Matt Damon to star in a true-crime story written by Jeff Maysh and published in The Daily Beast several days ago about an ex-cop who rigged the McDonald’s Monopoly game, allegedly stealing over $24 million and sharing it with an unsavory group of co-conspirators who offered kickbacks to the mastermind. The Pearl Street partners will produce, and the Deadpool scribes Paul Wernick & Rhett Reese will write the script.
Bidding was apparently fierce.
posted by ZeusHumms at 3:58 PM on August 2, 2018


Behind Hollywood’s A-List Bidding War for a McDonald’s Monopoly Article

And now it appears the bidding war was the end game all along. This almost feels like it deserves its own FPP, what a wild story.
posted by DynamiteToast at 7:48 AM on August 10, 2018 [4 favorites]


And now it appears the bidding war was the end game all along. This almost feels like it deserves its own FPP, what a wild story.
I'm under no illusions that journalism was pure and selfless in the past. . . but, goddamn. I feel a little bit dirty for having clicked on the article.
posted by eotvos at 8:32 AM on August 10, 2018 [4 favorites]


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