WEBVTT - I'll Buy that for a Dollar: Emerich Juettner 0:00:00.480 --> 0:00:02.720 Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:03.360 --> 0:00:03.920 Hi is Saron? 0:00:04.040 --> 0:00:05.040 Hey, what's up with Liz Bit? 0:00:05.920 --> 0:00:06.400 What's up? 0:00:06.600 --> 0:00:10.160 Hey? I got a question for you. 0:00:10.200 --> 0:00:12.159 No, I have a question for you. 0:00:12.400 --> 0:00:13.440 Do you really? What is it? 0:00:13.480 --> 0:00:14.840 What's you know? 0:00:16.800 --> 0:00:20.400 I do ridiculous? Okay, you're from northern California. You're a 0:00:20.440 --> 0:00:21.200 California Native. 0:00:21.560 --> 0:00:24.720 Generation's deep, aggressively so and obnoxiously so. 0:00:24.840 --> 0:00:27.720 Okay, I got something to help you be extra obnoxious 0:00:27.760 --> 0:00:29.680 amongst your like California natives. And you guys have your 0:00:29.800 --> 0:00:35.320 excuter club meetings or whatever. So do you know how Calistoga. 0:00:34.600 --> 0:00:39.120 Got its name Calistoke Town of Calistogah. No, So, in 0:00:39.159 --> 0:00:42.760 eighteen sixty two, this cat Sam Brannon, right, he's he 0:00:42.800 --> 0:00:44.360 was a Mormon. He was a he was a Mormon 0:00:44.400 --> 0:00:46.440 to moved to California, and back when he was a Mormon, 0:00:46.440 --> 0:00:48.159 he didn't drink alcohol. But then he left the church, 0:00:48.240 --> 0:00:50.000 came to California, he got really into alcohol. 0:00:50.320 --> 0:00:52.720 Like, this is amazing. I got to tell more people 0:00:52.760 --> 0:00:55.520 about this. So he then eventually opens this place called 0:00:55.560 --> 0:00:57.960 Hot Springs Resort. Yeah, and he's like, oh man, I 0:00:58.000 --> 0:00:59.680 have people come here. They're gonna get drunk and they're 0:00:59.680 --> 0:01:01.320 gonna get the Hot Springs is amazing. This is the 0:01:01.360 --> 0:01:02.960 best thing ever. I know why people don't know about 0:01:03.000 --> 0:01:05.679 this right now at this point, what he's drinking is 0:01:05.720 --> 0:01:08.679 French champagne. That's his drink of choice. Really, he would 0:01:08.680 --> 0:01:11.240 sit in bubbles, he would drink bubbles. He's like cold bubbles, 0:01:11.240 --> 0:01:13.760 hot bubbles. All about the bubbles. Right, So that the 0:01:13.760 --> 0:01:17.680 grand opening banquet for his Hot Springs resort, he raises 0:01:17.680 --> 0:01:20.200 a glass of champagne and he goes to toast his 0:01:20.280 --> 0:01:23.360 new resort. Now he wanted to compare it to its inspiration, 0:01:23.560 --> 0:01:26.880 Sarah Tooga Springs in New York. So he gets up 0:01:26.880 --> 0:01:29.360 there and he's like, I will make this place the 0:01:29.480 --> 0:01:33.760 Saratoga of California. But he'd been drinking so much champagne. Instead, 0:01:33.760 --> 0:01:39.720 he said, I'll make this place the Calistoga, Caarafornia. Yes, 0:01:40.160 --> 0:01:42.360 it's been called Calistoga ever since. 0:01:42.800 --> 0:01:46.800 It's so perfect beautiful. 0:01:46.840 --> 0:01:48.680 But there you go, and that's that's your country. 0:01:49.000 --> 0:01:49.800 Yeah, it is. 0:01:51.600 --> 0:01:52.200 Ridiculous. 0:01:52.240 --> 0:01:54.480 That is really so ridiculous. Do you want to know 0:01:54.520 --> 0:01:55.560 what else is ridiculous? 0:01:55.600 --> 0:01:56.000 Dude? 0:01:56.160 --> 0:01:56.520 Do I? 0:01:57.360 --> 0:02:25.640 It's actually ridiculously brilliant low value counterfeiting. This is Ridiculous 0:02:25.639 --> 0:02:31.359 Crime a podcast about absurd and outrageous capers, heists, and cons. 0:02:31.639 --> 0:02:35.360 It's always ninety nine percent murder free and one hundred 0:02:35.680 --> 0:02:37.040 percent ridiculous. 0:02:38.800 --> 0:02:39.360 You damn right? 0:02:40.440 --> 0:02:41.919 Did you just fall out of the ceiling tipe? 0:02:41.919 --> 0:02:43.359 I got dropped, But yeah, I'm here. 0:02:43.840 --> 0:02:49.880 Okay, a sad one. If you had a bundle of 0:02:49.960 --> 0:02:53.160 counterfeit cash, say like one hundred thousand dollars worth. 0:02:53.000 --> 0:02:55.400 Okay, I have a bundle. Oh, I don't have to 0:02:55.400 --> 0:02:56.080 actually say it. 0:02:56.200 --> 0:02:59.160 No, what would you do with it? 0:02:59.200 --> 0:02:59.280 Like? 0:02:59.320 --> 0:03:00.400 How would you bend it? 0:03:00.680 --> 0:03:03.079 Okay? This is an interesting question because I've actually been 0:03:03.120 --> 0:03:06.119 confronted with this a much smaller number. But I went 0:03:06.200 --> 0:03:08.960 to a bank in Los Angeles and I cashed a 0:03:09.040 --> 0:03:11.200 check and they gave me half of the money in 0:03:11.320 --> 0:03:13.959 counterfeit bills. And then I went to go get gassed 0:03:13.960 --> 0:03:15.680 with one of the hundreds and the person's like, dude, 0:03:15.720 --> 0:03:17.359 this look at you see this at twenty This is 0:03:17.400 --> 0:03:19.079 a fake bill. Don't try to pass this, man, And 0:03:19.120 --> 0:03:20.400 I was like what No, And I went back to 0:03:20.480 --> 0:03:23.240 the bank. I'm like, you gave me these four, you know, 0:03:23.480 --> 0:03:26.480 fake hundreds, and they're like, no, man, you walk you 0:03:26.520 --> 0:03:27.960 can't try to do that pass this, and so I 0:03:28.000 --> 0:03:30.040 got loud right and I'm like, you're trying to pass 0:03:30.120 --> 0:03:32.600 fit counterfeit bills, trying to hope people will get mad 0:03:32.639 --> 0:03:34.200 in line. I don't know what I thought would happen 0:03:34.280 --> 0:03:35.720 Themander comes over and goes get the hell out of 0:03:35.760 --> 0:03:37.320 the bank, and I was like, oh darn it. They 0:03:37.320 --> 0:03:38.960 wouldn't get me my money back. So now I've got 0:03:38.960 --> 0:03:42.200 these four hundred fake hundreds. So I'm like, well, what 0:03:42.240 --> 0:03:43.800 can I do? So I'm like, I'll go on Craigslist 0:03:43.880 --> 0:03:46.560 and buy something. So I put in Craigslist and I 0:03:46.640 --> 0:03:48.880 tried to buy a computer, assuming it was a stolen computer. 0:03:48.920 --> 0:03:51.480 I'm like, I'll give them counterfeit bills. It'll all be even. 0:03:51.720 --> 0:03:53.280 So I tried to go buy a laptop and I 0:03:53.320 --> 0:03:55.240 had to drive like way into East LA. And I 0:03:55.240 --> 0:03:57.440 show up to this guy and I'm like trying to like, 0:03:57.480 --> 0:03:59.200 you know, act like I'm a buyer, and I'm looking 0:03:59.240 --> 0:04:00.760 over the computer and he's like, okay, you gotta be 0:04:00.760 --> 0:04:02.400 like three hundred dollars, and I was like, cool, pervingt 0:04:02.400 --> 0:04:03.920 And I give him the three and he looks at 0:04:03.920 --> 0:04:06.160 me and he's like, give me my computer back, and 0:04:06.160 --> 0:04:08.640 I was like, d darn it. So before I got 0:04:08.640 --> 0:04:10.920 beat up by this great you know guy who you 0:04:11.000 --> 0:04:13.200 know sell stolen computers, I had to like talk my 0:04:13.240 --> 0:04:15.400 way out of there and anything. Luckily I gotten the 0:04:15.440 --> 0:04:16.920 money back from him, and he didn't want to have 0:04:16.920 --> 0:04:19.120 the counterfeit bills either. So then I tried to go 0:04:19.200 --> 0:04:20.919 and spend it at a gas station. Again, I'm like 0:04:20.920 --> 0:04:22.559 when we goes and go to spend us at another 0:04:22.600 --> 0:04:25.240 gas station, And eventually I was able to pass them. 0:04:25.279 --> 0:04:27.560 So wow, yeah, I shouldn't rebably admit that, but the 0:04:27.560 --> 0:04:30.880 statue of limitations is long gone for you. So yeah, Elizabeth, 0:04:30.920 --> 0:04:32.200 that's how I do it. I just spend it on 0:04:32.320 --> 0:04:33.400 other criminals and. 0:04:33.360 --> 0:04:34.680 Small interesting place. 0:04:34.720 --> 0:04:34.840 Well. 0:04:34.880 --> 0:04:37.400 I mean, the thing is, it's like the that when 0:04:37.400 --> 0:04:41.160 people think about fake bills, I think twenties and hundreds. 0:04:40.839 --> 0:04:42.279 Total, yusually hundreds. That's what I had. 0:04:42.400 --> 0:04:44.560 And you know, it's the smart move to try and 0:04:44.640 --> 0:04:47.000 like uh break them up and do them at a 0:04:47.160 --> 0:04:50.200 like separate like don't do multiple bills at one place, yes, 0:04:50.279 --> 0:04:52.240 Like I tried, so yeah what at a time at 0:04:52.279 --> 0:04:53.200 different places? 0:04:53.400 --> 0:04:53.560 Yes? 0:04:53.960 --> 0:04:56.080 But you know, like so that's it's smart to do that. 0:04:56.120 --> 0:04:59.400 What's even smarter is to fly under the radar. Do 0:04:59.560 --> 0:05:03.279 smaller bills like you know, tens get less. 0:05:03.080 --> 0:05:05.320 Scrutiny, Oh of course smart. Yeah. 0:05:05.400 --> 0:05:08.880 I was given a fake ten once. Yeah, when I 0:05:09.000 --> 0:05:12.360 was teaching. We had like a faculty event and we 0:05:12.360 --> 0:05:14.720 were like collecting money so they could have I don't know, 0:05:14.760 --> 0:05:17.440 they're going to like grill steaks or something. It was stupid, 0:05:17.920 --> 0:05:19.920 and so I was supposed to give me ten bucks. 0:05:20.080 --> 0:05:22.800 And when I went to count them out, one was 0:05:22.839 --> 0:05:26.680 slightly smaller than every other one, and I realized someone 0:05:26.720 --> 0:05:29.800 handed me a fake ten. So I'm me, what do 0:05:29.839 --> 0:05:30.560 you think I did? 0:05:30.960 --> 0:05:32.200 Took it to the police. 0:05:32.360 --> 0:05:35.520 I did because I'm like, I could like take this 0:05:35.560 --> 0:05:37.960 to Walmart. I was down the road and try and 0:05:38.040 --> 0:05:39.359 like do it. I was like, you know what, I 0:05:39.440 --> 0:05:42.880 wonder what happens? What do they do? It's ten bucks? Sure, 0:05:42.960 --> 0:05:45.760 So I called the non emergency line and I was like, hey, 0:05:46.279 --> 0:05:48.520 you know whatever, I have a fake ten dollars bill 0:05:48.600 --> 0:05:49.440 and someone gave. 0:05:49.279 --> 0:05:54.760 Me again, bring it on your normal weekly visit. 0:05:54.960 --> 0:05:57.479 So I'm in room with five whatever at the college 0:05:57.560 --> 0:06:01.440 and then like twenty minutes later, there's no crime in 0:06:01.440 --> 0:06:05.120 this place. I figure two detectives show up, like they 0:06:05.120 --> 0:06:06.680 didn't have suit jackets on, but they. 0:06:07.480 --> 0:06:09.160 Like short sleeve shirts and like. 0:06:09.120 --> 0:06:12.440 No pants, no underpants. So they come in and I 0:06:12.480 --> 0:06:14.440 give them the money and they made me fill out 0:06:14.440 --> 0:06:17.400 this form for the secret service and I it was 0:06:17.480 --> 0:06:18.320 out ten bucks. 0:06:18.400 --> 0:06:19.800 Yeah, you just lose it. 0:06:19.920 --> 0:06:20.720 Yeah, off ex. 0:06:20.880 --> 0:06:22.280 I was like, well, I'll just pass that on to 0:06:22.320 --> 0:06:23.279 someone else, right. 0:06:23.720 --> 0:06:26.880 So some why would you pick on an English faculty member? 0:06:26.960 --> 0:06:28.120 Yeah, I wouldn't have done that too. 0:06:28.240 --> 0:06:30.320 No, but I feel like it might have been like 0:06:30.400 --> 0:06:34.359 tool and die. Those guys are a little bit shady. Yeah, 0:06:34.480 --> 0:06:37.440 I love them to death. But anyway, so you know, 0:06:37.480 --> 0:06:40.880 like you got the tools and to die there not 0:06:40.960 --> 0:06:43.720 to be played. So if you have like a ten 0:06:43.760 --> 0:06:45.960 to five of one, they don't use those these days. 0:06:46.000 --> 0:06:47.599 Don't use the highlighter pens on those. 0:06:47.680 --> 0:06:48.440 Yeah, not at all. 0:06:48.480 --> 0:06:50.040 You know, that's the problem. And if a store is 0:06:50.080 --> 0:06:52.800 like really busy, someone's not paying attention, Like if you're 0:06:52.839 --> 0:06:56.680 just an English instructor trying to get through the day, 0:06:57.880 --> 0:07:02.000 you know, hearing this boring, then you're you know, likely 0:07:02.040 --> 0:07:04.320 to get away with passing the of course thought that 0:07:04.360 --> 0:07:06.960 you should have thought of that. So the move is 0:07:06.960 --> 0:07:09.000 to make smaller bills. I want to tell you about 0:07:09.000 --> 0:07:13.480 someone who did just that. A clever fella, an Austrian 0:07:13.480 --> 0:07:19.440 immigrant named Emeric Jutner. Oh yeah, it looks like Jutner. Okay, yeah, 0:07:19.480 --> 0:07:22.720 So Emeric he was born in eighteen seventy five in Austria, 0:07:23.240 --> 0:07:25.480 came from this working class family. He had, you know, 0:07:25.600 --> 0:07:28.960 two brothers, sister, normal stuff. And when he was a 0:07:29.040 --> 0:07:32.440 kid he learned about photo engraving. Oh yes, and so 0:07:32.760 --> 0:07:34.720 I think that maybe that's what his father did, and 0:07:34.840 --> 0:07:38.160 like maybe he was going to apprentice somebody. Yeah, and 0:07:38.200 --> 0:07:39.800 so he was like going to be you know, brought 0:07:39.840 --> 0:07:43.000 up to a prenticip But when he was fourteen years old, 0:07:43.160 --> 0:07:45.560 he got on a steamership and he set sail for 0:07:45.640 --> 0:07:48.560 the US of A fourteen fourteen New York City. 0:07:49.040 --> 0:07:51.560 The hot apple dude. Nineteenth century people would just break out. 0:07:51.560 --> 0:07:53.680 They're like, I'm thirteen and. 0:07:53.760 --> 0:07:55.520 I don't know if his family was with him, but 0:07:55.560 --> 0:07:58.800 I don't think they were, because a man I pulled 0:07:58.920 --> 0:08:01.160 up the man of us for the ship he came. 0:08:03.000 --> 0:08:05.720 He is the only Utner listed as arriving on the 0:08:05.800 --> 0:08:09.160 vessel trave and that was a ship built in Glasgow, 0:08:09.160 --> 0:08:11.600 by the way, So it looks like he's this fourteen 0:08:11.640 --> 0:08:13.760 year old boy, all on his own, headed to a 0:08:13.800 --> 0:08:15.080 no home. Isn't that crazy? 0:08:15.200 --> 0:08:16.080 It is? It's amazing. 0:08:16.200 --> 0:08:18.680 So his first job when he gets here is as 0:08:18.720 --> 0:08:20.240 a picture frame guilder. 0:08:20.720 --> 0:08:23.920 Okay, gold on pictures like the air on the robber bands. 0:08:24.280 --> 0:08:27.400 A lot of lout of frames to guild everything. 0:08:27.480 --> 0:08:30.160 When he's not slapping gold foil on frames, he was 0:08:30.200 --> 0:08:33.360 inventing things, so he was his hand. He drew up 0:08:33.400 --> 0:08:35.559 plans for a camera and he sent it off to 0:08:35.640 --> 0:08:38.559 Kodak interesting, and they passed on it. And then he 0:08:38.640 --> 0:08:41.520 invented a new kind of Venetian blind. I'm not sure 0:08:41.520 --> 0:08:44.880 what that entailed, but the window shade company he sent 0:08:44.920 --> 0:08:49.000 it to made light Kodak and they just passed untology. 0:08:49.080 --> 0:08:53.400 We want, you know, sharp blades as the slats. So 0:08:53.880 --> 0:08:56.160 in eighteen ninety five you put an ad in the paper, 0:08:57.040 --> 0:09:01.000 young man eighteen German and English, desire work or position 0:09:01.120 --> 0:09:05.640 with a chance for advancement by industriousness, Please address Emrick Utner, 0:09:05.760 --> 0:09:07.280 four oh two Fifth Street. 0:09:07.440 --> 0:09:10.720 Young man. 0:09:10.880 --> 0:09:13.600 So he's just like he's hustling for work, and he's 0:09:13.679 --> 0:09:16.760 just like upright citizen nineteen oh two. He's twenty seven 0:09:16.840 --> 0:09:19.880 years old. He met a woman named Florence Lemine. 0:09:20.320 --> 0:09:22.440 Florence Lemine, and they. 0:09:22.000 --> 0:09:24.560 Fall in love. It looks like yeah, and they get 0:09:24.600 --> 0:09:27.520 married and they have kids, and he gets this job 0:09:27.559 --> 0:09:29.480 as a maintenance man on the Upper East Side of 0:09:29.480 --> 0:09:29.800 New York. 0:09:29.840 --> 0:09:31.280 I'm rooting for these crazy kids, right. 0:09:31.640 --> 0:09:34.400 What's cool about his job is that he lived rent 0:09:34.440 --> 0:09:36.600 free in the basement of the building that he worked in. 0:09:36.800 --> 0:09:38.960 Oh, I thought he'd lived rent free in someone's mind. 0:09:38.960 --> 0:09:42.360 Well that too in mine. He's you know, decades a 0:09:42.440 --> 0:09:45.880 century later. So the family moved a few times, but 0:09:45.880 --> 0:09:48.400 they had this like solid existence and their Upper East 0:09:48.400 --> 0:09:52.240 Side so they're living in these great posh neighborhoods. He 0:09:52.280 --> 0:09:55.160 lived in what Elaine Hatfield, she's the author of a book, 0:09:55.559 --> 0:09:56.600 flim Flam Artist. 0:09:56.720 --> 0:09:57.520 Oh great book. 0:09:57.600 --> 0:10:02.080 Yeah, she called it genteel Poverty. Oh yeah. So he's 0:10:02.120 --> 0:10:07.240 like a nice guy. He's super kind, always smiling. Everyone 0:10:07.360 --> 0:10:10.960 loved him. Everyone's friend, everyone's friend. He was only five 0:10:11.040 --> 0:10:13.960 foot three, but he's like kind of ripped from all 0:10:13.960 --> 0:10:16.360 the physical work that he did, like even into his 0:10:16.440 --> 0:10:20.920 later years. And so basically he's the kind of person 0:10:20.960 --> 0:10:24.640 who's always been the engine of this country, the United States. 0:10:25.280 --> 0:10:29.200 Like he's this hard working immigrant, he's community minded, clever, 0:10:29.360 --> 0:10:33.240 he's a dreamer, he's scrappy. That's what builds us and 0:10:33.320 --> 0:10:38.400 keeps us going. So I love him. I'm into it exactly. 0:10:38.720 --> 0:10:42.640 And so all everything's going chugging along until nineteen thirty seven, 0:10:43.520 --> 0:10:45.720 and that's when his wife, the love of his life, 0:10:45.880 --> 0:10:48.760 died and he's sixty two years old. 0:10:49.600 --> 0:10:50.520 Yeah, bad time. 0:10:50.679 --> 0:10:53.160 His kids they're grown and they're out of the house. 0:10:54.280 --> 0:10:58.800 Now he's all alone. He has nothing to keep him motivated, 0:10:58.840 --> 0:11:01.080 and like everything just starts to fall apart for him. 0:11:01.320 --> 0:11:03.920 It was just him and his dog, and the dog 0:11:04.200 --> 0:11:06.319 was the only thing that kept the light in his eyes, 0:11:06.679 --> 0:11:09.360 because you know, it's just like he lost he lost 0:11:09.360 --> 0:11:10.040 his world. 0:11:10.280 --> 0:11:13.400 He now gets in and gives is the dog. 0:11:13.640 --> 0:11:16.360 And so he quit his maintenance job and he moved 0:11:16.400 --> 0:11:19.080 out of the basement place in the Posh neighborhood and 0:11:19.120 --> 0:11:22.360 then into a tenement in the Upper West Side, and 0:11:22.400 --> 0:11:24.280 he got a gig as a junk collector. 0:11:24.800 --> 0:11:26.080 Okay, like Sanford and Son. 0:11:26.200 --> 0:11:26.800 Yeah, totally. 0:11:26.840 --> 0:11:30.120 He's got a wagon. He goes around and collects very exactly. 0:11:30.360 --> 0:11:33.319 And I don't understand why. I think he was also 0:11:33.440 --> 0:11:35.559 just tired with the maintenance stuff. Because it was like 0:11:35.600 --> 0:11:36.200 a lot of work. 0:11:36.280 --> 0:11:37.640 Maybe you wanted to get out in the fresh air, 0:11:39.640 --> 0:11:41.440 and maybe he's a lot of interesting people. 0:11:41.640 --> 0:11:43.480 The world is junk for him. 0:11:44.440 --> 0:11:47.840 He wants to salvage what he can. He's very metaphorical 0:11:47.880 --> 0:11:50.160 and he's a poem walking. 0:11:49.920 --> 0:11:52.680 And his kids. His kids are trying to help him out, 0:11:52.720 --> 0:11:54.960 but he wouldn't take their money or their offers. 0:11:55.160 --> 0:11:59.000 Proud, he's way too proud Austrian from the old country. 0:11:58.840 --> 0:12:02.400 Exactly, and like hard work. The problem was that pulling 0:12:02.480 --> 0:12:05.360 scrap from like abandoned buildings and selling it to junk 0:12:05.400 --> 0:12:07.959 dealers is not a viable way to make a living. 0:12:08.800 --> 0:12:10.480 Very little, living very small. 0:12:11.320 --> 0:12:14.239 And he had savings that he and his wife had accumulated, 0:12:14.280 --> 0:12:16.400 but he just like winds up burning through that just 0:12:16.440 --> 0:12:18.680 to live. He's not living fancy, but it's just like 0:12:19.440 --> 0:12:23.960 he needs, you know, he eats through the savings exactly. 0:12:24.520 --> 0:12:28.000 So he gone from genteel poverty to the brink of 0:12:28.040 --> 0:12:31.600 like full destitution. And he didn't really care if he 0:12:31.640 --> 0:12:34.320 lived on the street, to be honest, but he did 0:12:34.480 --> 0:12:38.560 want to have that life for his dog. And he 0:12:38.600 --> 0:12:42.320 didn't name his dog, by the way, fox, this fox terrier. 0:12:42.720 --> 0:12:46.160 He once commented, quote, what good would a name do? 0:12:46.400 --> 0:12:46.880 The dog? 0:12:47.080 --> 0:12:49.600 When I talked to him. He knows I'm talking to him, 0:12:49.760 --> 0:12:52.760 don't he? And I know who he is without calling 0:12:52.880 --> 0:12:56.320 him some made up name, don't I. He's very Taoist 0:12:56.400 --> 0:12:57.400 of like, don't name it. 0:12:58.400 --> 0:13:00.320 The dog has no name, and he has no named 0:13:00.400 --> 0:13:02.560 before the dog for the dog. So it's just these 0:13:02.600 --> 0:13:05.600 two er souls moving through the world. 0:13:05.720 --> 0:13:06.200 Exactly. 0:13:06.360 --> 0:13:06.920 I love that. 0:13:07.000 --> 0:13:10.840 I think dogs deserve names. Human names will deserve human names. 0:13:10.840 --> 0:13:11.920 But anyway, so. 0:13:11.960 --> 0:13:13.079 You have a lot of fun with your dog. 0:13:13.600 --> 0:13:13.800 I do. 0:13:13.960 --> 0:13:17.600 So he needed cash, and he didn't really care about 0:13:17.600 --> 0:13:18.840 the world or its laws. 0:13:19.280 --> 0:13:20.439 Oh yeah, he's well passed. 0:13:20.480 --> 0:13:23.400 So he got crafty in a shady way. Okay, and 0:13:23.440 --> 0:13:26.760 that's another American treat. Sure, what keeps us running? 0:13:26.840 --> 0:13:27.320 Crafty? 0:13:27.600 --> 0:13:32.880 Shady, shady, crafty exactly. So in November of nineteen thirty eight, 0:13:33.000 --> 0:13:35.520 he got to work. Okay, So he went out and 0:13:35.559 --> 0:13:39.160 he bought a little portable printing press. He named it 0:13:39.280 --> 0:13:43.000 Uncle Henry. So he will name a printing press, but 0:13:43.040 --> 0:13:47.800 not at the dog. That's like you you name everything, yeah, everything. 0:13:47.840 --> 0:13:51.680 So the printing press was Uncle Henry. And he took 0:13:51.720 --> 0:13:54.960 a picture of a clean crisp dollar bill from back, 0:13:55.520 --> 0:13:57.760 and then he transferred it over to a zinc plate, 0:13:58.440 --> 0:14:00.800 and from there he put it into an acid bath 0:14:00.880 --> 0:14:04.040 to etch it into the plate, pulls it out, and 0:14:04.040 --> 0:14:06.840 then he like finishes by carving all the small details 0:14:06.840 --> 0:14:10.840 by hand. Yeah, this guy's ridiculous totally. And he carefully 0:14:11.000 --> 0:14:11.960 pressed a dollar bill. 0:14:12.000 --> 0:14:15.240 You imagine how slow his hand moved to etch metal 0:14:15.360 --> 0:14:19.320 on the fine details right, well, the of a dollar exactly. 0:14:19.880 --> 0:14:22.960 And so he presses a bill and it looks good 0:14:22.960 --> 0:14:25.920 to him, Okay, And there he is in his kitchen, 0:14:25.960 --> 0:14:30.520 he's printing out buck after buck, ensuring his livelihood and 0:14:30.560 --> 0:14:33.360 that of his unnamed pupp is just doing a dollar 0:14:33.400 --> 0:14:36.000 at a time. And he knew that he couldn't go 0:14:36.040 --> 0:14:38.280 pass them all at once, or like in one in 0:14:38.360 --> 0:14:41.560 one place more than once. So every week he'd spend 0:14:41.560 --> 0:14:44.000 about like ten bucks or so here and there. 0:14:44.080 --> 0:14:45.520 So he figured out the market. 0:14:45.600 --> 0:14:47.520 Yeah, he figured out a string of shops to hit. 0:14:47.560 --> 0:14:49.840 He never passed more than one fake dollar at any 0:14:49.840 --> 0:14:53.720 given store. Good so newspaper stands and grocers, and like 0:14:53.800 --> 0:14:55.640 he'd get what he and the dog needed to live. 0:14:55.680 --> 0:14:57.640 Give a couple of bucks a church, Yeah, he'd. 0:14:57.520 --> 0:15:00.400 Throw he'd throw one into his twenty five dollars rent, 0:15:01.200 --> 0:15:02.880 and he'd buy subway tickets. 0:15:02.880 --> 0:15:04.320 He just lowered the price of everything. 0:15:04.400 --> 0:15:07.320 Everything just shaved a little bit, like maybe a bartender 0:15:07.360 --> 0:15:07.880 here there. 0:15:08.360 --> 0:15:10.320 For tips, probably good for tips. They're going to spend 0:15:10.360 --> 0:15:11.440 it themselves, right. 0:15:11.880 --> 0:15:14.800 So the plan took him all over the city, all 0:15:14.880 --> 0:15:18.400 the burrows, walking to every corner the place to make 0:15:18.440 --> 0:15:19.520 sure he didn't repeat. 0:15:19.240 --> 0:15:20.280 A store brilliant. 0:15:20.400 --> 0:15:23.960 And it wasn't just to avoid detection. He didn't want 0:15:23.960 --> 0:15:28.880 to stiff any businesses more than a dollar. It's not fair. 0:15:28.960 --> 0:15:31.040 So I'm not going to stiff on more than a buck. 0:15:31.520 --> 0:15:34.360 And then one day, not too long after he started 0:15:34.360 --> 0:15:37.760 printing money, he went into this cigar shop on Broadway 0:15:37.840 --> 0:15:40.240 near one hundred and second, and he passed a faker 0:15:40.680 --> 0:15:44.280 and the owner was none the wiser. Emmerick stoles off 0:15:44.320 --> 0:15:47.040 with his stogy. But when the owner went to deposit 0:15:47.120 --> 0:15:49.440 his take for the day, the bank teller noticed something 0:15:50.360 --> 0:15:53.480 the paper. This is why, like my vision is getting 0:15:53.520 --> 0:15:57.840 so bad, and I don't like the progressive lenses. So 0:15:57.880 --> 0:16:00.280 I have my reading glasses on my distance classes. There's 0:16:00.280 --> 0:16:03.840 always one hanging off the front of my I always 0:16:03.840 --> 0:16:07.880 have and then sunglasses distant. But even so I feel 0:16:07.880 --> 0:16:11.160 like Emeric needed glasses. Okay, So it's like if I 0:16:11.280 --> 0:16:13.160 were doing at this point, I'm like, look at this 0:16:13.240 --> 0:16:16.520 cake I decorated with. Oh yeah, so the paper is 0:16:16.560 --> 0:16:21.360 super low quality, super cheap. It's like cheap bond paper 0:16:21.400 --> 0:16:25.240 from the corner store. The green ink wasn't the right shade. 0:16:26.080 --> 0:16:28.480 The silver certificate seal was supposed to be blue and 0:16:28.520 --> 0:16:32.520 it wasn't. The lettering was crooked, and there was like 0:16:32.920 --> 0:16:36.000 there's a portrait of our country's first president, George Washington. 0:16:36.160 --> 0:16:40.160 Apparently it was laughable mustache. A Secret Service member said 0:16:40.200 --> 0:16:44.680 it was quote poorly executed. Washington's right shoulder blends in 0:16:44.720 --> 0:16:48.240 with the oval background. The left eye is represented by 0:16:48.280 --> 0:16:52.600 a black spot. The right eye is almond shaped. And 0:16:52.640 --> 0:16:57.280 so it's like that Spanish retouched Jesus Fresco. Absolutely a 0:16:57.280 --> 0:17:01.960 door or if I tried carving plate like I would 0:17:01.960 --> 0:17:04.840 get frustrated and just stop caring. That's what happens with me. 0:17:05.000 --> 0:17:08.119 And you know, so the serial numbers on the fakes 0:17:08.119 --> 0:17:12.119 were blurry and there were typos. Washington was spelled w 0:17:12.400 --> 0:17:17.560 A H S I N G T O N. How 0:17:17.640 --> 0:17:21.840 had anyone accepted all these questions of America exactly. So 0:17:21.880 --> 0:17:25.199 the bank sees the dollar. But this he's been passing 0:17:25.200 --> 0:17:28.240 these all over look, and the cigar shop had to 0:17:28.280 --> 0:17:32.080 eat the cost. So then that the bank sends the 0:17:32.080 --> 0:17:35.040 bill to the Secret Service. And here's the thing. The 0:17:35.119 --> 0:17:38.400 Secret Service had already been getting these imagine yeah, yeah, 0:17:38.440 --> 0:17:43.080 And as time went on, they got thousands, thousands of 0:17:43.160 --> 0:17:48.120 people accepted this totally garbage bill, and thousands of people 0:17:48.680 --> 0:17:55.040 because Emeric continued his fraud for ten years, for a decade, 0:17:55.240 --> 0:17:58.600 sprink everywhere. Yeah, Secret Service for a decade is trying 0:17:58.680 --> 0:18:02.520 to track down this crappy counterfeitter New Year. They were 0:18:02.520 --> 0:18:06.879 finding him New York, to Baltimore, to Atlanta, to Denver, 0:18:07.000 --> 0:18:09.720 to Seattle. It's like this dollars move message in a 0:18:09.760 --> 0:18:12.520 bottle because we were there to go and then most 0:18:12.560 --> 0:18:15.399 though were all like circulating around the Upper West Side. 0:18:15.440 --> 0:18:17.480 In his neighborhood was a concentration point. 0:18:17.640 --> 0:18:21.360 Yeah. By nineteen forty seven he had passed more than 0:18:21.400 --> 0:18:24.840 five thousand dollars. That's like ninety one thousand dollars today. 0:18:25.400 --> 0:18:28.400 Small potatoes to the government, but a lot to Emeric. 0:18:28.960 --> 0:18:31.320 So let's pause here. When we come back from these ads. 0:18:31.600 --> 0:18:33.640 I'm going to tell you about the efforts to catch 0:18:33.680 --> 0:18:56.240 my man, Emeric Emeric Hutener. 0:18:56.840 --> 0:18:57.920 I'm loving this guy. 0:18:58.240 --> 0:19:01.920 Counterfeitter of the small and lousiest. 0:19:01.440 --> 0:19:03.280 Orders, totally Johnny counterfeit seed. 0:19:03.480 --> 0:19:06.560 I love him. I don't get I don't love that 0:19:06.600 --> 0:19:08.760 people got stiffed by him, but it's. 0:19:08.600 --> 0:19:09.240 Not a dollar. 0:19:09.400 --> 0:19:10.200