Ashley When 42-year-old Mike Hensley bought a banged-up arcade machine at a garage sale for $20, he thought he’d scored a nostalgic piece of his childhood. Little did he know, this rusty relic from the ’90s was hiding a fortune in plain sight – and it’s turning his life upside down.
The machine, a faded Coin Cruncher cabinet, rattled suspiciously when Mike dragged it home to his garage in Boise, Idaho. Curiosity got the better of him, and with a screwdriver in hand, he pried open the coin compartment. What spilled out wasn’t just a few stray quarters – it was a cascade of pennies, thousands upon thousands, pouring onto the floor like a jackpot gone wild.
“I thought it was broken or some kid’s prank,” Mike told reporters, still dazed. “Then I started counting – it was over 50,000 pennies, all jammed in there like the machine had been hoarding them for decades.”
The total? A staggering $500 in copper coins, weighing nearly 300 pounds. Experts say it’s likely the result of a glitch in Coin Cruncher’s coin-sorting mechanism, which rejected pennies back in the day but kept them trapped inside instead of spitting them out. Abandoned in an arcade that shut down in 2001, the machine sat untouched, quietly amassing its penny treasure until Mike came along.
But here’s where it gets wild: instead of cashing in, Mike turned the discovery into a viral sensation. He hauled the machine to his local bar, hooked it up, and declared “Penny Night” – free plays for anyone who brought their own pennies to add to the stash. The gimmick exploded, drawing crowds, news crews, and even a few coin collectors offering to buy the machine for thousands.
“I could’ve melted it down or dumped it at the bank,” Mike grinned, “but this is way more fun. It’s like the game’s still alive, sucking up pennies and spitting out stories.”
Now, Coin Cruncher is a local legend, and Mike’s weighing offers to tour it nationwide. Is this the weirdest windfall in gaming history? One thing’s for sure – those pennies are worth a lot more than a single play!
