When I was a little boy of about 9 years old, the Coca Cola bottling plant ran a promotion quite similar to what we saw with McDonald's restaurants and their infamous monopoly game. It too was subject to fraudulent action.

The game was to collect bottle caps which held the picture and name of individual Packers players on the inside of each bottle cap. There was a big sheet that you would get from local retailers with individual circles for each player on the team. You would glue the corresponding cap to the circle on the sheet until you filled it up and won the various awards dependent upon how many circles you filled.

By this time in my life I was as gangsta as a blonde haired blue eyed Beatles boot and cut little quasi juvenile delinquent from Madison could be...and I had a partner in crime, his name was David also.

David and I hatched a plan to win Bart Starr Jerseys. We collected multiple sheets and caps, hustling drinks from gas station customers at the local Parmann's Sinclair gas station by washing windshields and checking under hoods, in exchange for receiving the bottle caps from the cokes we asked them to buy in exchange for our full service at the pump. All were agreeable...the customers, the attendants that were actually supposed to do this service, and the owner- who was at least appreciative of the fact that we we busy taking care of his customers instead of stomping on and/or riding our bikes over his "bell".
So.
We had multiple sheets filled mostly with these bottle caps, but there was a common theme of missing certain players...the "rare, hard to find" ones...think Pokémon charizard etc. here...Did I mention that we were quasi hoodlums?

One Saturday morning we hopped on the city bus and went to the coca cola bottling plant. We walked in like we owned that mother fucka. My friend David told the first guy that asked us what the hell we were doing there that his dad worked there and that he was showing his friend (me) what his dad did for a living. The guy decided to give us both a tour. We learned all about bottling that day, with a special emphasis on bottle caps, but we didn't tell our "guide" that part.
The "line" had a separate room for the accumulation of the bottle caps prior to being placed in the receptacles for the processors to actually place them on the bottles. Now, mind you, this was a seemingly insignificant detail in the production of coke in Madison, but to two 9 yr. Olds, it was a major security breech and opportunity for some big league fraud. We took advantage. Nor only was the room separate from the line, it also had an exit door...we filled at least 10 grocery bags full of bottle caps (even 10 bags remained quite light, we are talking bottle caps here) and walked right out that back door.
I'm not saying we were big thinkers. Just like most criminals, we forgot some details. We went ahead and used those caps to fill in our missing circles, plus started and finished several more, becoming semi regulars at the office of the bottler for redemptions...
Can you guess what made them grow weary of our redemptions?


.

how young are you? did not read your story. But if you want a #15 jersey, they are all over the place. I have one

packerfanoutwest;439524how young are you? did not read your story. But if you want a #15 jersey, they are all over the place. I have one

Older than 9, now. You can get #15 jerseys? Can I have yours?

Dave! I remember having those bottle caps too!
I never accumulated enough to get anything. (My family were Pepsi drinkers) I wish I had those bottle caps now!
So, what did you get with all your redemptions?
And if they got suspicious, did they bust you?
Too much info left out!
Be “Paul Harvey”, and tell us “the REST of the story!”

Cheesey;439535Dave! I remember having those bottle caps too!
I never accumulated enough to get anything. (My family were Pepsi drinkers) I wish I had those bottle caps now!
So, what did you get with all your redemptions?
And if they got suspicious, did they bust you?
Too much info left out!
Be “Paul Harvey”, and tell us “the REST of the story!”

The REST of the story...

We sorta sucked as criminals, but the ladies in the bottling plant office were matronly and kind. We redeemed several full sheets- I forget all the goodies we received, but I do know I got a Bart Starr jersey- After at least two trips as having been the only people to have turned in any sheets at all, the ladies informed us that "enough is enough" of this nonsense...

The caps were "uncrimped". It was obvious they had never actually been used as caps for the bottles. Take your hand and make a claw...crimped. Now take your hand and spread your fingers...uncrimped.

A blatant "inside job", lol

The ladies were just being nice to these two rather industrious but greedy boys...David and I.

Things were a little more lax in 1965.

Fond memory !

Thanks for telling the rest of it! It’s a GREAT story!
The worst “criminal” thing I did as a kid was- we had a store called “Moreway” that my parents shopped at. They had a game area there, with pinball machines and things like that. They cost a dime each to play. They had a change machine, where you would put in a quarter, and get 2 dimes and a nickel. Well...,. I put my quarter in, and it gave me the change.....AND my quarter back! My parents left me at the game area, and went off to shop. So I was like, “COOL!” So I tried it again....and again and again.....filled up both my pockets! I felt like I was at Vegas! (Although I had no idea what Las Vegas was at that age) I thought I was RICH!
After I had filled my pockets, I noticed a piece of paper that had been taped onto the machine, that someone had flipped over the top. I flipped it down, and it said “out of order”!
I never told my folks about it. I must have been all of 6 or 7 years old at the time,
By the next time we shopped there, they had fixed the machine. (Darn it!)👍🤪😂

I would have made sure I had a quarter on me at all times in case the folks stopped at Moreway and the machine were to go on the fritz again.
Never hurts to check, lol- sort of the same category as inserting your Index finger in every chrome plated coin return cover on every coin op phone passed...a surprisingly lucrative exercise for almost every kid in America, lol

dfosterf;439545I would have made sure I had a quarter on me at all times in case the folks stopped at Moreway and the machine were to go on the fritz again.
Never hurts to check, lol- sort of the same category as inserting your Index finger in every chrome plated coin return cover on every coin op phone passed...a surprisingly lucrative exercise for almost every kid in America, lol

You think I didn’t do that???😂
Every time we went there, that was the first thing I did!
But it never paid out like that again!
My “life of crime” was over!🤪