Tools and Tool Boxes

[Big Frank]

Breaking ice for animals to drink reminds me of something. One winter when I was a kid one of my uncles' cows died. One of my other uncles put it in the dog pen for his dogs to eat, but it was hard as a rock. There's no way they could get their teeth into a frozen cow. So, when he went out to give them fresh water, my uncle would take an ax to the carcass and chop it like he was cutting down a tree. Then the dogs would snatch up a bunch of frozen beef chips and scarf them down. It seemed really strange to me, but it was just another day at my uncle's house.

[PegLeg45]

If you have a Lowe's nearby, they still carry Klein tools and most of their standard tools are still USA made.

[alfsauve]

Neither they nor Home Depot stock the 6” long nose pliers by either Klein, Craftsman or ChannelLock.  I could  order them on line which I’m trying not to do as we try to make January No-Credit-Card month.

[Rastus]

<snip> we try to make January No-Credit-Card month.

Simple.  Use a debit card!

 

Yeah, I know....a smart ass remark.  The no CC month is a great idea.

[alfsauve]

Obviously you’ve had little experience with money laundering.  I am, well was, the accountant

[Sponsor]

[Big Frank]

I never laundered money, except when I forgot to empty my pockets on laundry day.   But I was a small time loan shark when I was in the army. Once in a great while someone would come up to me and say something like, hey Frank, let me get 10 for 20 on payday. So, I gave them 10 bucks and got it back with 100% interest on payday. I had an extra 10 bucks to last me until the next payday, and they were already 10 bucks short. If anyone was desperate enough to borrow 10 bucks again, I had it in the bank.

[MikeBjerum]

WARNING ... DRIFT ALERT ... WARNING

Speaking of money laundering, in my current position I have observed some not so small-scale money laundering. I service CoinStar kiosks five to six days per week. Ten kiosks per day. A full kiosk, which is very common, contains two bins of about 500# of coin each. Depending on the denomination, two full bins will have a value of between $8,500 and $14,000.

Many people make money off machines that require coin for purchases. The biggest is laundromats. Through observation of trends and talking with store managers when I'm servicing, I picked up on the trend. These people are paying for the use of the kiosk and running their coins through these. Dump your coins, the machine tallies, and you either put it in crypto, gift card, or get cash. With cash there is zero trail, and since washers and dryers don't keep record, what you report to Big Brother is what you care to report.


CoinStar also has the ability to convert cash to crypto or gift card, but that does utilize some personal information. More than once, I have observed a person doing the cash conversion, and they were punching in information that was on a piece of paper. The kiosks have a warning sign on them about not making gift card or crypto conversions for other people. Kind of like TSA warning you to not hold luggage for strangers.

[Big Frank]

Interesting. And thread drift is what we do best. If you find one thing that you're good at, DO IT.   On a related theme, there are some gas stations around here owned by Arabs who charge one price for cash and a higher price for using credit cards. I've been told that they do a lot of cash sales, under-report their earnings, and send a bunch of money back to bumf**kistan to their cousins, so they have enough money to come here and open more gas stations and party stores. And a lot of party stores are owned by Arabs. In Michigan, party stores don't sell balloons and Hallmark cards. It's not a party without a well stocked supply of liquor, tobacco, and lottery tickets.  

My one gallon glass jug holds 5,500-6,000 pennies. I only put pennies in it, and it takes a good 15-20 years to fill, then I take it to CoinStar and get ~$55 for what other people wouldn't bother picking up off the street. Most of the change was from stores when I used cash and picked them out of my pocket when I got home, but I don't often use cash anymore. A lot of it was literally pennies lying on the ground that other people walked by and ignored.