Utah man cited after paying bill with 2,500 pennies

[catlover79]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110605/...g_with_pennies

– Sun Jun 5, 5:08 pm ET

VERNAL, Utah – A Utah man has been cited on a charge of disorderly conduct after paying for a disputed medical bill with 2,500 pennies.

The Deseret News of Salt Lake City reports Jason West went to Basin Clinic in Vernal on May 27 prepared to dispute an outstanding $25 bill.

Assistant Vernal Police Chief Keith Campbell says that after asking staff members whether they accepted cash, West dumped 2,500 pennies on the counter and demanded that staff count them.

Campbell says the incident upset staff because pennies were strewn about the counter and floor, and West's action served "no legitimate purpose."

Police later issued the 38-year-old West a citation for disorderly conduct. That carries a fine of as much as $140. Or 14,000 pennies.

[tiredmike59]

People dont like to count change.
I tried to pay a traffic ticket with 4 rolls of quarters,
they threw a tantrum and made me go to the bank to exchange them for bills.
Cop caught me doing 37 in a 30 zone. Big crime.

[a.rusty.catheter]

Omg! Just take the money, people. LOL. What difference does it make what form it's in.

[catlover79]

Big deal - cash is cash. Too bad if they are too lazy to count it!!

[OH Nuts!]

Originally Posted by catlover79

Big deal - cash is cash. Too bad if they are too lazy to count it!!

Exactly. Cash is cash. Unless theyre's a law already on the books stipulating what currency you can use I don't see how they have a case. Esp. in tiredmike59's case. Where he paid with rolled coins. Why theose clerks got so hot doodie over that is beyond me. They sound like a bunch of whining lazy f***s - what a pain it must have been to deal with "civil" ( hah!) servants like that.

[Waterston_Fan]

You guys must not mind counting 2,500 or so pennies.

Isn't there something that could make it faster by some machine to count them?

To be honest, I sure as hell wouldn't like to sit on my ass for 3 hours and count 2,500 pennies.

He could have gone to a coinstar place and maybe do a hundred at a time, I don't know how much they are allowed to pay you when you submit it.

EDIT: Now four rolls of quarters isn't too bad and I think they could have counted it.

[catlover79]

The movie theater I used to work at had a machine that was able to count change. It really helped cut down on time when we had to clean out the cash registers at the end of each shift!!

[Coffeecup]

I think there is an unenforced law that business aren't required to take any more than 50 loose pennies in an transaction. I can't see how rolled coin would be a problem unless indeed what is inside the roll isn't the true item.
Some kooks might try to palm off a bunch of washers as money. I guess we have to protect ourselves.

[catlover79]

True, good point.

[Marvo301]

Having worked in retail I can tell you crooks will try to get away with anything they can. I saw a guy pay for $50 of gas with a roll of twoonies.($2 coins we have in Canada) The problem was there was one twoonie at each end of the roll and all washers in between so that gas station was out $46!! That has been stopped now because there is a law here that all gas must be prepaid. So now you get jokers who come in to the gas station and dump a whole pile of change on the counter and say I'd like to prepay this much please. Then they go out to the pump and start screaming because the pump isn't turned on yet! Meanwhile the poor clerk has to spend several minutes counting the change in order to know how much to set up the prepay for.