![a supersized conspiracy: how one man rigged the mcdonald’s monopoly game and won $24 million a supersized conspiracy: how one man rigged the mcdonald’s monopoly game and won $24 million](https://squaremileofmurder.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/SQMM-large-text-2500.png)
- #A supersized conspiracy: how one man rigged the mcdonald’s monopoly game and won $24 million tv
- #A supersized conspiracy: how one man rigged the mcdonald’s monopoly game and won $24 million free
They were undercover agents from the FBI.Īt the FBI’s Jacksonville Field Office in Florida, Special Agent Richard Dent added the Hoover videotape to his growing pile of evidence. The two men behind the camera were not from McDonald’s.
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They suspected that Hoover was not a lucky winner, but part of a major criminal conspiracy to defraud the fast food chain of millions of dollars. The camera crew listened patiently to his rambling story, silently recognizing the inconsequential details found in stories told by liars. He bought another copy from a grocery store, he said, and inside was an advertising insert with the “Instant Win” game piece.
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When he bent over to wash off the sand, his People magazine fell into the sea. Nervously clutching his massive check, Hoover said he’d fallen asleep on the beach. Inside Hoover’s home, Amy Murray, a loyal McDonald’s spokesperson, encouraged him to tell the camera about the luckiest moment of his life. Monopoly quickly became the company’s most lucrative marketing device since the Happy Meal.
#A supersized conspiracy: how one man rigged the mcdonald’s monopoly game and won $24 million tv
“Don’t go to jail! Go to McDonald’s and play Monopoly for real!” cried Rich Uncle Pennybags, the game’s mustachioed mascot, on TV commercials that sent customers flocking to buy more food. Armed robbers even held up restaurants demanding Monopoly tickets. Just like the Monopoly board game, which was invented as a warning about the destructive nature of greed, players traded game pieces to win, or outbid each other on eBay. There were two ways to win the Monopoly grand prize: find the “Instant Win” game piece like Hoover, or match Park Place with the elusive Boardwalk to choose between a heavily-taxed lump sum or $50,000 checks every year for 20 years. Like winning the Powerball, the odds of Hoover’s win were 1 in 250 million. But Hoover, a casino pit boss who had recently filed for bankruptcy, claimed he’d won the grand prize–$1 million dollars.
#A supersized conspiracy: how one man rigged the mcdonald’s monopoly game and won $24 million free
By completing groups of properties like Baltic and Mediterranean Avenues, players won cash or a Sega Game Gear, while “Instant Win” game pieces scored a free Filet-O-Fish or a Jamaican vacation. Since 1987, McDonald’s customers had feverishly collected Monopoly game pieces attached to drink cups, french fry packets and advertising inserts in magazines. The 56-year-old bachelor had called a McDonald’s hotline to say he’d won their Monopoly competition. They carried their cameras and a giant cashier’s check to a row of townhouses, and knocked on the door of Michael Hoover. On August 3, 2001, a McDonald’s film crew arrived in the bustling beach town of Westerly, Rhode Island.