The McDonald's Monopoly Game: A Supersized McFlop with Beth Stelling and Ify Nwadiwe | 85

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Remember when a big, beautiful, family-size house cost $250,000?

Something like that today would be what, triple the price?

Well, imagine you get that house for free, grandpa gets a million dollars, and your best friend wins a brand new car, all thanks to the McDonald's Monopoly game.

If that sounds too good to be true, that's because it is.

Unless, of course, you're the Robin Hood of scammers, or I guess in this case, the hamburgler of scammers.

Let's get into it, besties.

It's the Monopoly game only at McDonald's with over 50 million prizes and supersized excitement.

For years and years, the game was compromised.

It was rigged.

The scam worked for more than a decade, with the crooks making off with more than $24 million.

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Why are there ridges on Reese's peanut butter cups?

Probably so they never slipped from her hands.

Could you imagine I'd lose it?

Luckily, Reese's thought about that.

Wonder what else they think about?

Probably chocolate and peanut butter.

From Wondering and At Will Media, this is The Big Flop, where we chronicle the greatest fails, blunders, and flubs of all time.

I'm your host, Misha Brown, social media superstar and super-sized drama queen at Your Bestie misha and on our show today i'm so excited we have an actor a comedian and writer it's iffy wadiway hey hello hey how's it going so so good

we are also joined by another comedian and podcast host of sweethearts podcast and we called your mom it's bet stelling hi thanks for having me So excited.

So before we get into the whole story of McDonald's and the Monopoly game, what do you remember yourself about the McDonald's Monopoly game?

It felt like they kept moving the finish line.

I mean,

I'm over here getting repeat after repeat.

It's such a disappointment to peel that off the wet cup and or the fries and find out you just have another freaking park place.

Oh, yeah.

Oh yeah.

I was all in.

I probably

just really made McDonald's sales numbers jump whenever it came around because

the the way they did it is you'd always get two.

You'd always get two, so you were always hunting down one.

And giving you that two made you think you were closer than you always were, even though everyone had the same two.

It's so true.

I feel like people were like truly just

getting the fries and ripping it off and then throwing the fries in the trash.

Well, today we are talking about how one man managed to cost McDonald's a whole lot more than Monopoly money by taking one of its most popular promotions of all time.

And yes, this story does end with someone going directly to jail.

So the board game, Monopoly, was invented in the beginning of the 20th century.

And by the 1980s, it's become an American institution.

Just like another M-name we all know and love, McDonald's.

I'm loving it.

So the idea to combine these two iconic brands comes from a company called Simon Marketing in 1987.

And Simon Marketing also came up with Happy Meals.

So, I mean, they know a thing or two about selling hamburgers.

You know what I mean?

Now, the way the Monopoly game works is when you buy something at McDonald's, there are Monopoly game pieces attached to your drink or your fries package or your burger box.

You can also find the pieces in ads in magazines and newspapers.

which I did not remember that.

The pieces are covered by little flaps that you peel off.

And if you you find the right combination of Monopoly pieces or the instant win pieces, you win a prize.

So let's take a look at an ad for the Monopoly game from 1987.

And with a dream vacation, collect these for a $250,000 home.

What?

A home?

I don't remember that.

Yeah, I didn't know that.

You were winning houses?

That's...

That was in 87.

Yeah, that's true.

Houses were way cheaper way cheaper and that looks like the mcalister home from home alone for 250 000 today that's what two million we will drop this house on top of your house

wow pretty advanced graphics though to have the monopoly guy in the doorway yeah yeah yeah they were really good with that also i loved that your dream vacation was a carnival cruise yeah that was before all the bad press and e coli yeah look i i I still love a cruise.

You know,

it's a boat.

You get unlimited food.

Tell me about it.

I worked on them for 10 years.

Oh, my goodness.

As a singer.

Whoa.

So with this 1987 ad for the game, how hyped would you be to play this game?

Very.

Yeah.

Especially the house.

I would have lost my mind.

Yeah, I was going to say at my age now or like at my age when I was playing it, which was like, you know, before, I think like anywhere from like 18 to like 23 was when I was really into it.

And I think the house would be the least exciting.

Like, I was, I'd be like, I want to jet ski, even though I had nowhere to put it.

Yeah, I live in Texas.

I'm like, I need that snowmobile.

Yeah.

Mine was money.

I wanted the money, whatever it was.

Oh, yeah.

For sure.

Well, the prizes they range from some that are great, like a Jamaican vacation or a million dollars, to some that are less exciting, like a free fileo fish sandwich.

Now, some of the prizes are also in a way their own flops because you could have won a Sega Genesis and a PT Cruiser.

So RIP to those.

Now the thing to keep in mind is that if you're playing the game, you're extremely unlikely to actually win one of the big prizes.

And to see how bad the odds are, let's play a game.

In this game, I'm going to give you two scenarios and you have to tell me which one is more likely.

First question, what's more likely?

Winning $1,000 in the Monopoly game or getting a royal flush in poker?

A royal flush in poker.

Yeah, it's seeming royal flush.

I'm scared to know the odds, quite frankly.

Ding, ding, ding, and we do have those odds.

Yes, you are more likely to draw that poker hand.

The odds of getting a royal flush are about one in $650,000, while the odds odds of getting that $1,000 prize are one in 30 million.

No.

You should go to Vegas with those odds.

Honestly.

Yes.

Question two.

What's more likely?

Winning the Million Dollar Grand Prize or getting attacked by a shark?

I think it's attacked by a shark.

No, yeah.

I think it's attacked by a shark for sure.

Dig, dig, dig.

Yes, you are more likely to get attacked by a shark.

The odds of winning the Dollar Grand Prize are one out of 250 million, while your odds of getting jaws

are one in 11.5 million.

Okay, still pretty low on the shark, which gives me hope for a Florida trip.

But I can't believe the Million Dollar Prize.

I think the key was like living in Ohio, they knew that they were never going to put those two pieces together, like in that state.

Yeah.

And if, and they were banking on us not having enough money to leave Ohio, and they were right.

And they were correct.

Final question.

What is more likely, winning a PT cruiser or getting struck by lightning?

I honestly would rather get struck by lightning than what a PT cruiser.

I feel like I could monetize getting struck by lightning more than being able to sell that ugly PT cruiser.

Every PT cruiser off there is just catching strays

on this episode.

It looks like a hearse.

Well, you might be getting the pattern here, but yes, it is more likely to get struck by lightning.

Your chance of winning the car is one out of 150 million, but your odds of getting hit by a thunderbolt are under one in a million.

Wow.

So

it's a little scary for us in lightning.

Yeah, I know.

You were walking around thinking you were safe from thunderbolts, you know.

Those were like the top kit fears, that and like quicksand.

Mm-hmm.

So yes, you may have noticed a pattern here.

It is hard to find things that are less likely to happen than winning one of the bigger prizes in the McDonald's Monopoly game.

Now, despite the fact that the odds are long and many of the prizes are pretty lame, the Monopoly game is huge.

It's McDonald's biggest marketing success since the happy meal.

Now, when the promotion is running, it increases business by almost 50%.

And I mean, when we're talking the amount of money that McDonald's is bringing in, the amount of burgers they're slinging, that's a lot of extra burgers.

And it's a lot of extra cash.

So the game, huge hit, but there is one massive liability.

If people knew where the winning pieces were going to be, or if they were able to get their hands on winning pieces before they got packaged, they'd be able to guarantee themselves a win.

So the game pieces are extremely valuable.

So security, real important for running this kind of game.

And this actually isn't some far-fetched concern.

McDonald's restaurants have literally been robbed at gunpoint by people wanting Monopoly pieces.

Oh my goodness.

Wow.

That's like, talk about a gamble.

Can you imagine robbing them and having just all the wrong pieces?

You go in, you're like, give me a shake too.

And they're like, our shake machine's down.

So

you don't get money.

You don't get a sweet treat.

That's all I want.

I know.

So for the game pieces this valuable, McDonald's and Simon Marketing needed a manufacturer that can be trusted.

And they landed on a company called Dittler Brothers.

Dittler?

To be fair, they were already pretty well vetted.

They're known for printing sensitive materials like official lottery tickets and stamps for the U.S.

Postal Service.

So if you're a McDonald's exec, like, how are you feeling about the Dittlers?

It's the Dittler Brothers on the case.

Probably like these guys got it.

Yeah, they know what they're doing.

They're going to knock it out.

Yeah.

So understandably, Dittler Brothers try to employ people who can be trusted, and they think they have a solid employee in a man named Jerome Jacobson.

Now, since he was a kid, Jerry has always wanted to be a cop, but he's also beset by health problems that keep him from getting that dream job.

The closest he gets is a brief stint as a police officer in Hollywood, Florida, but health issues cut his time on the force short.

But at the age of 38, Jerry finally gets his chance to live out something close to his law enforcement dream when his wife, Marsha, helps him land a job involving security at Dittler Brothers.

And Jerry gets put in charge of production for all of their McDonald's work.

So basically, this means that Jerry's responsible for making sure there's no funny business when it comes to the McDonald's games.

And a major part of that job is making sure that nobody's making off with any of those game pieces.

And Jerry, let me tell you, he takes his job very seriously.

A little too seriously.

He insists on checking employees' shoes to make sure they aren't sneaking away with any pieces.

And he even has them keep tabs on each other while they're using the bathroom.

Wow.

Yeah, so you can absolutely imagine a McDonald's exec, they're feeling pretty good with Jerry at the helm, you know?

But how reasonable do you think Jerry's approach is?

I don't think it's a reasonable at all.

He should have been checking mouths and bums.

Armpits, underwear, hair.

I'm putting one of those game pieces on the roof of my mouth, I'll tell you that.

Oh,

I got my eye on you.

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So, by 1988, Jerry becomes director of security at Simon Marketing, and that means he's overseeing the entire McDonald's game.

He keeps an eye on the computer that determines which pieces are winners, and he watches over the printing process.

Jerry personally stores the pieces in high-security vaults behind multiple locks, and he personally delivers the game pieces to the factories that make all of the McDonald's fast food containers.

He even invents a special vest to hide the game pieces in while he's traveling.

What?

So this gig, it does make Jerry feel like he's a real big shot.

And in addition to a nice yearly salary of around $70,000, the job also comes with a bunch of pretty sweet perks.

When he's out on business trips, distributing those game pieces, Jerry flies first class.

Ooh la la.

Yes, he's not shy about ordering that in-flight booze.

Give me a dirty martini, please.

And he's also not shy about going out to steakhouses, ordering as much as he can off the menu and sending the company the bill, which, Jerry, as you should, McDonald's, they can afford it.

Okay.

Yes.

But as all of this is going on, Jerry's been thinking, if he's in charge of security for the Monopoly game, maybe he could just, I don't know, rig it.

Yeah.

Just maybe he could steal one of those pieces and get away with it.

So if you had Jerry's job, how tempted would you be to sneak a winning piece for yourself?

Ooh.

to be honest with you, I'm such a rule follower.

Yeah, me too.

I think the nerd in me and wanting to make it a legitimate game would stop me from doing that.

I'd be like, no, I want it to be fair.

It wouldn't be a real win for me.

Yeah.

It's like if the wife's dead, it was the husband.

They're going to be checking Jerry.

Yeah, Jerry's probably the first to be talked to.

Any besties out there who are not the rule followers, let us know.

What would you do?

So in 1989, Jerry decides, you know what?

I'm going to go for it.

And he he steals a $25,000 Monopoly piece.

So what do you think made him do that?

He asked for a raise and didn't get it.

He forgot to pat himself down.

Yeah.

Just forgot.

Well, Jerry doesn't cash this winning piece in himself.

He's smart enough to know that they would be way too suspicious over that.

Instead, he gives the piece to his stepbrother.

And Jerry picks his stepbrother for this test run because he thinks it would be less likely to be connected back to him.

Yeah.

And he was right.

Nobody connects him to his stepbrother and the plan goes off without a hitch.

But that seems so crazy to me in today's age.

Like, how reasonable is it that McDonald's could not connect those dots?

I know.

Maybe they had just had too many games running to even care.

Yeah.

And I think they, that you're not really, really looking into it.

Like, I imagine like it's all the honor system.

They're like, no one would be silly enough to try to just dupe the system.

So, yeah.

Yeah.

I'm just like, also after taxes, what do you get?

Like 10?

Like $14?

Yeah.

I don't know.

We also have to remember this is the 80s.

So, I mean, like pharmaceutical companies didn't even have to tell you, don't take this if you're allergic.

You know, people were just doing whatever they wanted.

Yes.

So Jerry, he's gotten away with it once now, but he's not going to stop there.

No, he's going to repeat the scheme, handing off another winning piece to someone else that that he knows.

So who do you think the next person Jerry ropes into his plans is?

It has to be someone he really trusts or is really close to him, right?

It's like, it's got to be somebody he trusts, but you also don't want to have the same last name as you.

Yeah, so who do you think he goes for?

His girlfriend?

Well, the next person Jerry helps out is his butcher.

No.

Yes.

Wow.

Look, if you can't trust your butcher, who can you trust?

Okay.

Still, Jerry is worried that someone will connect him and his butcher.

I mean, after all, who is closer than a man and his butcher?

So he says that the butcher has to find someone else to take the prize money.

The butcher says, I got a friend who can cash in the winning piece.

So Jerry slides his butcher one worth $10,000.

All right.

Yeah, that's just a little tip for slicing and dicing so well.

The butcher gets a little 10 grand piece.

Someone else cashes it in.

Jerry just asks that he get paid a little bit of that money for his trouble say two grand that's pretty low i mean but after taxes again i don't know what we're getting yeah i mean after taxes that's more than 20 now because you know

so not bad not bad how would you feel about taking all of those risks that jerry's taking for that amount of money

That yeah, that's too many.

You have too many loose ends.

I think the moment you leave out of the first person you're asking, now it's getting very, very, very risky.

Because one, it's risky to go with your butcher, like your stepbrother, you know, you know, and you're related, and they want the best for you.

Your butcher, he's chopping you meat up.

You don't know if he has any like pun unintended beef with you from uh, you know, any past, you know, he's like, oh, he's always asking for the hardest cut to make.

So, Jerry's successfully made off with the Monopoly game pieces twice now.

And both times, the people he's given the pieces to have been able to cash them in without anyone getting suspicious.

Now, Jerry may have only made two grand so far, but he's not going to stop there.

There's all tests right now, it seems like.

And I know, and it seems like this is going to be a thing where it all falls apart is when he goes for the big money.

Yeah, we're in beta right now.

Okay.

So he is going to keep this scheme going.

And every time he runs his scam, he's going to follow the same pattern he established with his butcher.

He finds someone else to pass the stolen pieces off to.

They claim the prize and Jerry gets a cut.

But a turning point comes in 1995.

Many years.

Oh, wow.

Yeah.

That year, McDonnell raises the grand prize money to $1 million.

And Jerry decides to raise the stakes of his scheme as well.

He is going to steal a $1 million prize piece.

In order to get a high-value piece, Jerry has to do an elaborate switcheroo.

Right.

While transporting a bunch of winning pieces, he sneaks into an airport bathroom.

And while in the stall, Jerry carefully extracts the winning piece out from behind its seal.

Then he swaps in a less valuable piece and puts a new seal on so that nobody can tell anything happened.

But this is just like on the little stickies that they're going to put on cups and fries, right?

Yeah.

Yeah.

But if you were in that stall next to Jerry at the airport, what would you think is going on?

You know, just wrappers.

Why is this guy eating Snickers in the stall?

So this is a high-risk strategy.

You think accidentally dropping your phone or your wallet in a toilet is bad?

Try dropping a game piece that's worth $1 million.

His hands had to be shaking.

Like

trembling.

Oh, 100%.

Let's also not forget that you very much could go to jail for stealing that much money.

Exactly.

Yes.

So Jerry gets his million dollar winner, but he doesn't pass it off to someone to cash in.

He stashes it away in a safe.

Now, you might think that Jerry would lie low now that he's got his hands on the most valuable piece in the game, but no, he immediately steals another million dollar piece.

How is he getting these?

I thought it was like more, like after talking about how low the chances, that's why I'm like, because he's making them, I guess.

He's in charge of overseeing the whole production.

So he really knows where those winners are.

Yeah.

Yeah.

This is all before they're going out.

It's as they're being produced.

I mean, this guy is, he's just like the hamburgler, but for money.

He must be the one who's like, okay, I have these million-dollar pieces, and it would be his job to know that he should take like one to Florida and one to Washington.

Yeah, but Jair's, he's real busy, this Jare Bear.

What do you think he does with the second million-dollar piece?

Eats it.

Well, he does not keep it for himself or ingest it.

Right around Thanksgiving, 1995, he mails this second million-dollar piece to St.

Jude Children's Research Hospital.

What?

He's seeming dumb now.

Maybe it was guilt.

Maybe he's guilt that he was stealing.

So then he's like, let me give some of this back.

I mean, noble, but are they allowed to do it?

Well, it's just going to be somebody who opens it at St.

Jude's.

That's relying on the nun or whoever is opening it.

Again, he's a risk taker.

Now, the mysterious donation, it does become a national story and nobody can figure out who's behind the gift.

Now, according to the rules, you are not allowed to give a winning piece to someone else, even if the piece was not stolen.

So, technically, this donation should not be allowed, but in this case, McDonald's decides to make an exception, probably because of kids with cancer.

And they do, in fact, give the hospital the money.

Now, McDonald's also pointedly says that they are not going to look into the mysterious donation at all.

And I should note that if they would have, St.

Jude would not have been connected whatsoever in this scheme.

Wow.

He got lucky.

Seems like a strange move.

Yeah.

Maybe it was smart.

Maybe it was very calculated on Jerry's part.

Yeah, they, because it is at that point, you're kind of in the position where if you try and do anything, it's going to look like you're trying to get out of paying the St.

Jude.

You kind of had their arms tied up.

Yeah.

But it allows him to get a little cocky.

Well, with McDonald seemingly completely oblivious to what's going going on with their game, Jerry's got a chance to take his scheme to the next level.

So he makes a decision that will ultimately lead to the collapse of both his scam and the McDonald's Monopoly game.

He brings in a new partner.

A man with ties to the mafia.

No.

Honestly, we should produce a movie.

You lost me at man.

Yeah.

So how do you think Jerry gets involved with the mob?

He was just involved with St.

Jude's.

What a departure.

I know.

Well, he gets connected to the mob by completely random chance.

One day, Jerry's in the Atlanta airport and he finds himself sitting next to a man who is on his way to Atlantic City with a bag full of cash.

And this man is a mobster named Gennaro Colombo.

I wonder if he just was forced into the mafia due to name.

Yeah, it was like, you got it.

There's no way.

You can't do anything anything else.

Sorry.

How did he know he had a bucket of cash on him?

Look, I got a bag of cash.

I'm going to go win it on some poker.

It just had a dollar sign on the outside.

Well, Columbo's got a massive empire of nightclubs, both the gambling and the strip variety.

He even runs a strip club out of a phony church, which that is definitely one way to get people into those pews.

I think.

So, how long do you think it would take some unsuspecting person to realize that this church ain't actually a church?

Hey, this is a lot more fun.

Yeah, yeah.

Hold on.

I actually like church.

So at the airport, Jerry and Colombo start talking, and the two men realize they might be able to help each other out.

Jerry seals their newfound friendship by giving Columbo a winning monopoly piece.

And you better believe he's giving his mob buddy a better prize than a free phileo fish.

He's like, you give me a phileo fish.

I mess with your family.

Okay, here's a question.

If you had to win over a mobster, what monopoly prize would you give him?

I'm one beanie baby.

I'd go with a boat.

Something tells me mobsters like boats.

Hey, you're pretty close.

Besties, what about you?

What piece do you think would win over a mobster?

Let us know in the comments.

Jerry gives his new bestie a piece that wins him a Dodge Viper.

Wow.

Wow.

Yeah, Columbo winds up being Jerry's point man for distribution of these stolen pieces.

Holy.

So now they're giving out prizes all over the East Coast, and Jerry is getting a piece of all of that money.

And we're talking major, major cash.

Jerry is getting paid tens of thousands of dollars for some of these pieces.

So Columbo also gets his wife, Robin, involved in the scheme.

He gifts Robin's best friend a stolen piece and gives Robin's dad one of those million-dollar winners.

No.

The web is too wide.

The web is too wide.

Yeah, like I said, messy.

It's messy.

It's getting crazy.

Now, as all of this is going on, McDonald's remains utterly blind to what is happening.

They have so little idea of what's going on, they actually put Columbo in one of their ads for the Monopoly game.

What?

Let's take a look at that commercial.

Oh my God.

Yes.

Kyle McKinnon won a Sega Saturn with a Daytona USA game.

Jerry Columbo won a Dodgeby birth.

Jerry.

Wow.

Yeah.

So Iffy, what do you think about Jerry?

That's my review.

He looks like an extra from the Sopranos.

Yeah.

Yeah.

He looks like if I was like, who in here is a mobster, I would definitely pick him.

Definitely pick Jerry.

So look, I'm trying to see where the shoe's going to drop, and this feels like it because I'm like, oh, man, you chose the guy who looks the most like a criminal, too.

He looked friendlier than I imagined, honestly.

He did look friendly.

I mean, he did also just win a car.

Yeah, he's happy.

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only.

Well, by 1998, Jerry is living large.

He moves into a new house, buys land on a lake, goes on pricey cruises, and starts his own luxury car collection.

No.

Yeah.

He's just like, I'm balling on this 70 grand paycheck.

He also becomes part of a car club, which becomes another distribution opportunity.

He gets over $50,000 from another person in the club in exchange for stolen pieces.

Yes.

But...

Jerry's luck is about to start running out.

Yeah, it is.

In May, Columbo dies in a car accident.

Oh no.

Whoa.

I wonder if it was in that viper.

I agree.

With Columbo dead, Jerry is going to need help finding more phony winners for his scheme.

And as a result, he starts casting his net wider and wider, bringing in some people who he might never have brought into his plan before, including a convicted cocaine dealer.

Uh-oh.

Oh, oh, no.

That's not how you do that.

Coke kids, they ain't known for keeping their mouths shut.

Yeah.

Quite Quite the opposite.

So what do we think it's going to take for McDonald's to finally be like, hey, something fishy is going on here, and we're not talking about the sandwich?

Now, it might seem like there's just about nothing that Jerry can do to get these McDonald's people's attention, short of sending a signed confession to Mayor McCheese.

I don't know.

But he's actually about to get taken down now.

Yeah.

So.

What do you think happens?

Any guesses?

I feel like somebody's going to rat it out.

I think someone's going to crumble.

Yeah, I think either someone's ratting it out or throwing someone under the bus.

You guys are smart.

You guys are so smart.

Besties, before we get there, comment below who you think the rat is.

All right, Jerry's world starts to collapse in 2000 when FBI agent Richard Dent gets an anonymous tip about Jerry's scheme.

What?

Robin Columbo.

The wife of the deceased Jerry Columbo has a theory.

It wasn't her.

She has a theory.

She thinks that it might be a member of her husband's family who had an ex to grind with her and called the FBI as a way to get back at her since she was involved in the scheme.

Well, that's messed.

It's messy.

They could have just asked for a game piece.

Right?

She has the contact.

She could have given them one.

Right.

So once the FBI gets this anonymous tip, they get in touch with McDonald's and the company starts helping them track down the winners.

Hey, McDonald's finally decided to check in on their massively successful promotion.

That's crazy.

It only took a call from the literal FBI for them to notice something fishy going on.

As the FBI looks into the people who have been winning the game, they notice a suspicious pattern.

Three.

Of these winners live just a few miles away from one of Jerry's houses.

Huh.

Oh, no.

That's strange, considering the odds of winning any of the big prizes in these Monopoly games is incredibly small.

So the odds of three of them happening so close to each other is even smaller.

He's like, you know what?

They've actually all three also been hit by lightning.

Go for that.

Yeah.

So, I mean, how would you feel if you were the FBI agent and you made that connection?

I would be like, this is easy.

They just made my job so easy.

Yeah.

This was like my easiest day on the job.

Also, I should get one of those winning pieces.

Give me a winning piece and I'll stay quiet.

So to seal the deal, the FBI puts a wiretap on Jerry's phone, figuring that if something is going on with the Monopoly game, they better look into the guy in charge of the game's security.

So the law closing in.

on Jerbear, but Agent Dent wants to make sure that they have more than enough evidence to put him away.

Okay, so if you're McDonald's, are you ready to shut the game down or do you want to try and save your golden goose?

I mean, remember, this is bringing in 50% more business.

Right.

Not shut the game down.

I think you would definitely try and just try and protect it and just be, you know, more vigilant.

So McDonald's wants to stop running the Monopoly game entirely.

Which makes sense because from their point of view, the money from the game is going directly into the pockets of scammers.

Yeah.

Hate that.

And if the general public found out they actually had even less of a chance of winning the game than they thought, McDonald's might be in some serious hot PR water.

But Agent Dent asks them to run one more game to let them catch Jerry and his crew once and for all.

So McDonald's agrees to run the game and the FBI sets up a way to trap one of the phony winners, a man named Michael Hoover.

When he comes forward to collect his money, he's he's told that he's going to be interviewed by a camera crew about the win.

However, the camera crew is actually made up of FBI agents who are going to arrest him once the fake interview is over.

Now, we have a clip of this fake interview.

They let him tell his entire fake story about how he found the winning piece.

Let's take a look.

I'm scared.

Oh, man.

I was coming home.

I decided to stop and get provisions for dinner.

So I stopped at the uh mcquaid supermarket and picked up a few things and uh so we've actually asked you about the mcdonald's and they there it was right there at the checkout stand so i bought one and when i got home i was leafing through it and uh we had the mcdonald's uh monopoly game and the one i peeled off was a million dollar instant prize winner it was like wow is this for real yeah is it for real is it for real or is this a lie you're telling he's like i woke up uh and it was bright i took my first breath.

What are you talking about right now?

We've asked you about the Monopoly thing.

I know.

So strange.

They're like, tell us about how you found the winning piece.

And he's like, well, I had some sand on my translucent legs.

I had to go rinse them off in the ocean.

So strange.

Yeah, very obvious

to those of us who tell stories for a living.

I know.

I'm trying to think about if like a time it would have happened to me.

Like, oh my gosh, it was after our field hockey game.

We lost we sit down everyone's bummed i peel it off and we lose our minds and it was freaking amazing like it would just that would be it but you know what i also loved about it was that he was like and then wow i was so surprised i i just won a million dollars no enthusiasm but how surprised do you think mr michael was when the fbi patents agents pulled out their badges i'm scared

he was probably no we don't have that moment

they even brought one of those big novelty checks i know to the interview which is so funny I know.

I feel like his ears went back, you know, when they're like, so we're actually from the FBI.

And he's like,

so the FBI takes care of the latest batch of phony winners.

And soon that brings them around to Jerry.

On August 22nd, 2001, Jerry is arrested by the FBI for conspiracy to commit mail fraud.

And the people who work with Jerry are completely shocked.

Like their ultra-strict head of security was the last person they would have suspected.

They're like, so you're telling me this guy's been fingering my butthole for no reason.

Exactly.

The case is a major media event.

The attorney general himself makes a press statement about it.

But how big of a problem do you think all of this publicity around the fraud is going to be for Mickey D's?

I think big because I think this is one of the biggest, like everyone, you know,

feels like they're one away so this is so easy for people to be like that's why I didn't win that's why I didn't win yeah they're gonna they're gonna retaliate actually yeah for those of us who are living our best lives at this time this was a huge cultural moment every year I think yeah I was just gonna say I think it's gonna be actually like at first I was like who cares and I thought no this was actually a time where trust was still involved in an exchange like you would trust that what you were paying for would give you something edible later we find out it's nearly all inedible.

Yeah.

So, yeah, it's not a good look for Mickey D's.

Like I said, since McDonald's knew that the winning pieces in the game were likely to get stolen, that means they were knowingly promoting a game that average folks had an even worse than usual chance of winning.

As one person puts it on CNN, quote, people that were buying the hamburgers, all they were getting at this point was cholesterol.

Zing.

Got them.

If you were someone that bought something something at McDonald's because you thought you had a chance of winning one of those big prizes, like, how are we feeling about the company as all of this news is coming out?

Sicker and sicker.

Sicker and sicker.

So people who wanted to win a million dollars themselves would be totally right to feel upset with McDonald's, even though they are not involved in Jerry's scheme.

In an attempt to head off this bad PR, McDonald's CEO Jack M.

Greenberg releases a statement the same day as the arrests.

He says, says, quote, when the FBI first contacted us, we were shocked and stunned.

Let me underscore one important point.

Millions of McDonald's customers legitimately won prizes over the years.

McDonald's will do whatever it takes to ensure the integrity of our brand and the trust of our customers.

That ain't going to cut it.

Yeah.

A little bit more than that, buddy.

So McDonald's finally tries to make amends for the whole fiasco and restore public trust in the company by giving away a total of $10 million to random customers.

Like there was no game at all.

If you were just at the right McDonald's on the right day, they might just hand you some money alongside your fries.

In a further attempt at PR cleanup, McDonald's also cuts ties with Simon Marketing.

And remember, they've been working together on this promotion for almost 15 years.

So that's practically a divorce at this point.

Yeah.

And the two companies wind up filing lawsuits against each other, but reach a settlement in which McDonald's agrees to pay Simon Marketing $16.6 million

without admitting wrongdoings.

Wow.

Wow.

So bad.

I think they handled this badly.

They should have maybe put a pause in the game.

At first, I was like, no, keep it going.

Whatever.

They handled this badly.

Absolutely.

Meanwhile, in court, Jerry agrees to admit that he stole $24 million.

Oh, he flew too close to the sun.

Way too close.

And he's also going to say that he was guilty of three charges.

These three charges he pleads guilty to are worth 15 years in prison.

And he also has to pay back $12.5 million.

And on top of that, his collection of luxury cars gets seized by the government.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Bad day for him.

By the end, Jerry's brought so many people into the scheme that over 50 other people go down with him.

Whoa.

Wow.

That's wild.

In court, Jerry says, quote, all I can tell you is I made the biggest mistake of my life.

I feel like he really didn't go down swinging here.

I know.

I think they couldn't attract it back to him for a few of them.

I don't know.

I feel like he should have fought harder.

I don't want him to win, but you thought he would fight harder instead of being like, I've made a graveyard.

Ify, what do you think his biggest mistake was?

His biggest mistake was extending that web.

I think he should have kept it simple.

I think the problem with cons is like you, as you get more confident, you keep trying to raise the stakes where you should be happy with the rivers and the lakes that you're used to.

You're chasing the million-dollar waterfall and then you get caught and you get clapped, where you could have just been swimming in jet skis and vipers and just playing it very simple.

But because you wanted the big money, that's when it all fell apart and you kept adding people to it.

Also, working with a mobster, the moment you work with a career criminal, you're going to get caught.

There's people watching that career criminal.

I mean, if we saw photos of Jerry's home, we would be so disappointed in how he spent it and how he decorated it.

I think.

Honestly, this is something on this show that always drives me absolutely nuts: he got away with it for so long, and he

stole $24 million.

There's no need for you to have $24 million

when you lived a life where you were like so happy with 70 grand a year.

So it just like at some point just stop, but they always just keep going.

Greed always overtakes

the downfall.

Greed is the downfall.

Okay, question.

What do you think was the biggest mistake McDonald's made?

Leaving it all in the hands of one man.

Yeah, one man and not like confirming like, oh, wait, you're a stepbrother to this person.

Okay, well, yeah, no, that this probably, we might need to look into it, but they just kind of never looked into it.

Yeah.

Nobody wants a helicopter boss, but like a little bit of oversight might have been good.

Well, let's do a little, where are they now?

So Jerry wound up doing just over three years in prison.

That's it.

That's it.

Mm-hmm.

He must have been a very good guy in prison.

And after his release, he moved to Georgia, where by all accounts, he's been keeping a very low profile.

So no need to worry.

Your fast food promotional games are safe.

McDonald's stopped running the Monopoly game in the United United States in 2016, but you can still play in other parts of the world.

That's right.

If you want to win those big Monopoly books, you'll just have to become the worst stereotype of an American tourist by traveling to another country and ordering McDonald's.

So here on the big flop, we try to be positive people and end on a high.

So are there any silver linings that you can think of that came about from this McDonald's Monopoly fiasco?

It was fun.

It was a good time.

You know, like, it was fun to peel it off and have that little, you know, in the grand scheme of things, it was gambling at a safe level outside of the health repercussions of eating McDonald's.

I think it led us to the next

great McDonald's adventure, which was the teeny beanies.

The teeny beanies.

By the way, if you haven't listened to our episode on beanie babies, go check that out but you know i do think there is like one silver lining that it it may have made people more aware of how unlikely it is that you'll win these type of promotional games that it really is just a grab to get more of your cash so i mean if you're gonna buy a burger buy it because you're hungry not because you think you're gonna win a million dollars

that that's yeah you that can be a whole bar that's a way to live by yes So now that you both know about how McDonald's let their Monopoly game get completely taken over by the game's own head of security, would you consider this a baby flop, a big flop, or a mega flop?

I would go with mega flop since they stopped doing the game because of it.

You know, I think you just stop like you lost something that boosted sales by 50%.

Yeah, no, that's a mega flop.

You're missing out on money.

I'm, I'm, I'm calling it a big flop

because, you know, only one

man was killed in the making of this scheme.

And

the other one only had to serve three and a half years.

Yeah.

Who was really hurt?

You know, some people did some terrible home design.

The government got a couple specialty cars.

And this man's back in Georgia on the loose.

On the loose.

Now, besties, for the first time, who do you think had the bigger flop?

Was it Jerry or McDonald's?

Leave your vote in the comments.

Well, thank you so much to our guests, Iffy Wadiwe and Beth Stelling, for joining us here on the Big Flop.

And of course, thanks to all of you for listening and watching.

If you're enjoying the show, please leave us a rating and review or subscribe.

And we'll be back next week with another flop.

If you're a cool teen millennial, brace yourself because we're talking about your beloved American apparel and how it was nearly driven into the ground by its Canadian founder with a Napoleon complex.

Bye.

Bye.

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The Big Flop is a production of Wondery and At Will Media, hosted by Misha Brown.

Produced by Sequoia Thomas, Harry Huggins, and Tina Turner.

Written by Anna Rubinova and Luke Burns.

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