This is the moment a father-and-son duo of demolition contractors scored a small jackpot when they discovered hundreds of dollars after drilling open an abandoned vending machine.
You may think that junk is just junk but there are people who actually make money out of salvaging all sorts of spare parts from items that other people don’t want anymore. It seems other people are also gaining a fascination and appreciation of this unique business which is probably why History Channel’s American Pickers is still going strong.
Watch the duo crack open the machine below.
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Video credit: Rumble
In this case, the lucky duo was a father and son team who were demolition contractors. Rick Langos, 50, and son Darick, 20, are from Island Lake, Illinois. The pair spotted an abandoned soda vending machine in the course of visiting an auto shop project. Since it was abandoned, they decided to salvage it.
Once the machine was back in Rick’s workshop in Island Lake, they were planning to open it up to salvage more than just the cans of soda inside. Abandoned vending machines sometimes have small amounts of cash that the operator left behind or forgot to withdraw before decommissioning them and father and hoped to literally cash in on this. But little did they know that they would find more than just bits of coins once they cracked open the machine.
A video shows Rick applying his grinder to the machine while in the background, Darick can be overhead saying ‘show me the money.’
Once they pry the door open, a thick wad of cash can be seen wedged inside as they take apart the cash dispenser, causing Darick to exclaim: “That’s way more than we have ever found, dude!”
Aside from the wads of cash, they also found a neat little stash of nickels, dimes, and silver quarters to add to their haul.
They empty the whole pile and start counting the money which they estimate to be in the region of $150.
All that work is bound to work up a thirst and they were happy to see different brands of sodas that are just free for the taking.
A little perk that demolition contractors have is that when the building has been signed over, they are free to salvage whatever it is that remains inside the property.
Darick said: “When I saw the money, I wanted to scream with excitement.
“The thrill of the hunt was just as exciting if not more exciting than finding the money.
“We don’t do this to strike it rich, we do it for fun.”
Replaced!