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GA man receives last paycheck in 91,515 oil-covered pennies dumped on his driveway


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Video at link.  He should take this to The People's Court.  Episode title:  "Pennies the Hard a Way"

https://www.fox5atlanta.com/news/fayetteville-man-receives-last-paycheck-in-oil-covered-pennies-dumped-on-his-driveway

 

...Andreas Flaten said he left his job at A OK Walker Autoworks in November 2020. He said he was supposed to get his final paycheck, but was having difficulty getting it.

Flaten said he even contacted the Georgia Department of Labor to get help.

In mid-March, Flaten said he finally received the $915 he was owed, but it was not in the form he was expecting.

Flaten said he was leaving his home to go to the store when he noticed the pile of oil-covered pennies. He said on top of the pile was an envelope that said "f--- you" and contained his last paystub.

"This is a childish thing to do," Flatten said.

The pennies now sit in a wheelbarrow inside his garage. The weight of the pennies has deflated the tires of the wheelbarrow.

"If I’ve done my math correctly, 91,515 pennies should come out to be about -- at two and a half grams each -- about 504 pounds," Flaten said.

Flaten said his new routine is now to sit in his garage at night and clean off the pennies with a solution of dish soap, vinegar, and water. Even with the solution, it's hard to get the pennies clean...

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...FOX 5 did speak with the owner of the business over the phone. He said he paid Flaten in U.S. currency and did not want to be a part of the story.

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Maybe a Surly lawyer can tell us, but is this illegal? If not, this is epic, final boss level petty and amazing.

Would be super curious to hear the other side of the story as well, regardless, because you don't get this treatment on your last paycheck unless you did something...

Edited by DonkeyCigars
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I don't know if throwing cash on someone's yard is considered paying them. The ex-employee should have just claimed that he never received the pennies. Worse case make the employer get another 91k pennies.

I assume that a bank won't accept oil covered pennies or you would have to fight them to get them to accept the pennies. Therefore you could argue the payment isn't valid if no one will accept the money as-is.

Edited by Nice Guy Eddie
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First glance I thought the title read "GA man receives last paycheck in 91,515 oil covered penises

5 minutes ago, DonkeyCigars said:

Maybe a Surly lawyer can tell us, but is this illegal? If not, this is epic, final boss level petty and amazing.

Would be super curious to hear the other side of the story as well, regardless, because you don't get this treatment on your last paycheck unless you did something...

So, in Texas the requirement is that the payment be in US currency, which pennies still are [for now]. However, there is also this provision:

"Payment by a written instrument that is not negotiable or for which payment is refused for any reason attributable to the employer does not constitute payment of wages for the purposes of this chapter.

Grammatically, I'm not sure if "for which" modifies payment or written instrument. You might be able to make an argument here if he refused the pennies but a bit of stretch. I'm not aware of any other Texas law that would make this illegal. I don't know about Georgia. 

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26 minutes ago, DonkeyCigars said:

Maybe a Surly lawyer can tell us, but is this illegal? If not, this is epic, final boss level petty and amazing.

Would be super curious to hear the other side of the story as well, regardless, because you don't get this treatment on your last paycheck unless you did something...

If he left his job, given how things are/were, I'm guessing he had another job lined up, and the owner wasn't happy.

I wouldn't trust a place run like this with my vehicles, especially if the owner was fucking around  and delaying the guy getting his last paycheck by four-fucking-months.

 That speaks volumes about the way that business is run, and I can only imagine how the owner would respond in a dispute with a customer.

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44 minutes ago, High Plains Drifter said:

 

There used to be a Texaco (maybe something else) on the NW corner of Guadalupe and MLK. Once I was in there waiting in line, and some chick two people in front of me bought like a gallon of gas and was paying in the change she had picked up from the floor of her car. The cashier starts bitching about how he doesn't want to count all the change, and Mr. Lawyer in line behind her pipes up and says "That's legal tender you have to take it."

Cashier takes the change, doesn't bother to count it, leaves it laying on the counter. Mr. Layer pays for his big gulp with a five. Cashier pushes the change to him and says "here's your change sir."

 

 

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2 hours ago, High Plains Drifter said:

 

There used to be a Texaco (maybe something else) on the NW corner of Guadalupe and MLK. Once I was in there waiting in line, and some chick two people in front of me bought like a gallon of gas and was paying in the change she had picked up from the floor of her car. The cashier starts bitching about how he doesn't want to count all the change, and Mr. Lawyer in line behind her pipes up and says "That's legal tender you have to take it."

Cashier takes the change, doesn't bother to count it, leaves it laying on the counter. Mr. Layer pays for his big gulp with a five. Cashier pushes the change to him and says "here's your change sir."

 

It happened to a lawyer, so yeah funny as shit

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2 hours ago, RDCanecutter said:

Be funny as hell if he found some rare antique variant in that pile.

He won't, but it'd still be funny.

And then used the money he got for that penny on a really neat watch, a Rolex, which was what the lawyer wanted to get from his son for Father’s Day. Then he could show him that watch on the day he failed to take over a small tv station. 

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8 hours ago, High Plains Drifter said:

 

There used to be a Texaco (maybe something else) on the NW corner of Guadalupe and MLK. Once I was in there waiting in line, and some chick two people in front of me bought like a gallon of gas and was paying in the change she had picked up from the floor of her car. The cashier starts bitching about how he doesn't want to count all the change, and Mr. Lawyer in line behind her pipes up and says "That's legal tender you have to take it."

Cashier takes the change, doesn't bother to count it, leaves it laying on the counter. Mr. Layer pays for his big gulp with a five. Cashier pushes the change to him and says "here's your change sir."

 

 

8 hours ago, BabaYaga said:

Did that once for a $100 office bet that didn't go my way.  Fuck all, whole bucket of pennies was heavy as hell and dumped on this guys desk.  

 

Reminds me of this time I was once at the grocery store trying to get batteries then get home in time to watch Hondo.  They only play it once every so many years, and my wife seemed almost like she was intentionally trying to ruin it.

This little old lady in front of me decides to pay at the register with large jars of coins.  Tells me she and her husband put a penny in every time they make love.  Gross.

Anyway, I ended up getting trapped in the store and missing Hondo.

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I currently live in the smallish town where this went down.  Word on the street is the guy who quit in November had been caught stealing. He had been a somewhat long time employee, so the owner said he wouldn't fire him, but he was going to dock some of his pay every pay period until it was paid back. Two weeks later, the guy quits. Owner doesn't want to pay him the last check (since he's still owed money from the theft). State gets involved. Pennies dumped on driveway. Quitter guy dumps oil in the change pile, then starts calling all the news stations. Apparently a lawsuit will be headed towards the quitter in short order. Big excitement for this ridiculous little town.

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14 hours ago, Moocowtex said:

I currently live in the smallish town where this went down.  Word on the street is the guy who quit in November had been caught stealing. He had been a somewhat long time employee, so the owner said he wouldn't fire him, but he was going to dock some of his pay every pay period until it was paid back. Two weeks later, the guy quits. Owner doesn't want to pay him the last check (since he's still owed money from the theft). State gets involved. Pennies dumped on driveway. Quitter guy dumps oil in the change pile, then starts calling all the news stations. Apparently a lawsuit will be headed towards the quitter in short order. Big excitement for this ridiculous little town.

Thanks for the backstory. Couple of lessons for anyone. A thief is a thief and shouldn't get a second chance even if they are sincere in their remorse. You can never trust them again. If the amount is relatively small, I would give them the option of paying it back today or I'm going to the police. And they're fired in either case. If the amount is large, I'm going to the police without warning. And I would ask the police to arrest them at the office in front of everyone.

It also shows that if an employee owes the employer money, you want basically want to run it through payroll so you can legally withhold final paychecks. You stole $1000? We're adding that to payroll as an advance. But once again, I wouldn't allow someone to pay back the theft over time. 

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The first thing I thought of when I saw this was, "What did this asshole do?" Because no one goes to the trouble of getting a wheelbarrow and a fuckton of pennies for a generic pain in the ass.  Those are a dime a dozen.

Reminds me of a time we got sanctions against a real pos opposing counsel.  He was ordered to pay our costs.  Those costs were delivered in a bajillion bank bags of $1 coins.  The partners gave everyone a ton of them as Christmas presents.  I still have a few laying around somewhere.  Good times.

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16 minutes ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

Thanks for the backstory. Couple of lessons for anyone. A thief is a thief and shouldn't get a second chance even if they are sincere in their remorse. You can never trust them again. If the amount is relatively small, I would give them the option of paying it back today or I'm going to the police. And they're fired in either case. If the amount is large, I'm going to the police without warning. And I would ask the police to arrest them at the office in front of everyone.

It also shows that if an employee owes the employer money, you want basically want to run it through payroll so you can legally withhold final paychecks. You stole $1000? We're adding that to payroll as an advance. But once again, I wouldn't allow someone to pay back the theft over time. 

Probably a little more complicated. When I've had money taken at work, I knew who took it but I didn't have proof. It happened 3 times with significant amounts of money. But without proof, not wanting to throw a single mother in jail, with other employees saying it wasn't her.... firing her for theft wouldn't have been prudent. There were plenty of other reasons, though, so it made things easier.

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16 hours ago, Moocowtex said:

I currently live in the smallish town where this went down.  Word on the street is the guy who quit in November had been caught stealing. He had been a somewhat long time employee, so the owner said he wouldn't fire him, but he was going to dock some of his pay every pay period until it was paid back. Two weeks later, the guy quits. Owner doesn't want to pay him the last check (since he's still owed money from the theft). State gets involved. Pennies dumped on driveway. Quitter guy dumps oil in the change pile, then starts calling all the news stations. Apparently a lawsuit will be headed towards the quitter in short order. Big excitement for this ridiculous little town.

Username checks out kinda

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Back in the 70's when I was about 8 years old, my dad lost a bet that he didn't feel like he really lost. To pay the bet, he got one of those old glass ~ 2 gallon milk jugs with the long skinny neck and put $100 worth of pennies in it and then filled it the rest of the way with honey.

A few months later, my brothers and sisters and mom and I came home one afternoon and opened the garage door and there was a live goat tied up in our garage. Apparently the guy that had won the previous bet had lost a subsequent bet and chose to pay with a goat.

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On 3/24/2021 at 2:44 PM, High Plains Drifter said:

 

There used to be a Texaco (maybe something else) on the NW corner of Guadalupe and MLK. Once I was in there waiting in line, and some chick two people in front of me bought like a gallon of gas and was paying in the change she had picked up from the floor of her car. The cashier starts bitching about how he doesn't want to count all the change, and Mr. Lawyer in line behind her pipes up and says "That's legal tender you have to take it."

Cashier takes the change, doesn't bother to count it, leaves it laying on the counter. Mr. Layer pays for his big gulp with a five. Cashier pushes the change to him and says "here's your change sir."

 

That was indeed a Texaco.  Source- my sole credit card in college was a Texaco card.

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On 3/26/2021 at 9:16 AM, Orange&White said:

Back in the 70's when I was about 8 years old, my dad lost a bet that he didn't feel like he really lost. To pay the bet, he got one of those old glass ~ 2 gallon milk jugs with the long skinny neck and put $100 worth of pennies in it and then filled it the rest of the way with honey.

A few months later, my brothers and sisters and mom and I came home one afternoon and opened the garage door and there was a live goat tied up in our garage. Apparently the guy that had won the previous bet had lost a subsequent bet and chose to pay with a goat.

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