Ex-boss dumps over 90,000 oily pennies in Georgia man’s driveway in pay dispute
After months of waiting, Andreas Flaten says he finally got the $915 his former employer owed him — but it wasn’t a check or cash.
Instead, the Georgia man says, his ex-boss dumped a massive pile of more than 90,000 greasy pennies at the end of his driveway earlier this month, media outlets report.
Flaten put in his two-weeks notice at A OK Walker Luxury Autoworks in Peachtree City in November but had trouble getting his final paycheck, according to FOX 5 Atlanta. The payment would arrive some four months later.
“This is a childish thing to do,” he told the news station after discovering the pile of coins.
He said the pennies, which now sit in his garage inside a large wheelbarrow, weigh just over 500 pounds and are covered in what appears to be motor oil. Atop the mound was a note with an expletive scrawled across it, according to photos and video posted online.
Flaten’s girlfriend, Olivia Oxley, says she suspects the ex-boss, Miles Walker, is behind the ruse after Flaten complained to the Georgia Department of Labor about the delayed payment.
“At first, we were super ticked because we were trying to leave the house ... and we had to shovel pennies out of the driveway before we could go anywhere,” Oxley told People magazine. “However, after the first shovel full, all we could do was laugh because this poor miserable man took so much time to be vindictive and cruel.”
When asked about the pennies, Walker told WGCL he “doesn’t really remember” dumping them at Flaten’s house but said it didn’t matter either way because “he got paid, that’s all that matters.”
Flaten said he left his job at the auto shop last year due to a toxic work environment, according to the news station. WGCL spoke with former Walker Luxury Autoworks employees who made similar complaints, including one man who recalled Walker ripping up workers’ final paychecks.
Flaten said he now plans to spend the next several weeks cleaning and scrubbing the pennies so he can cash them in.
“It’s going to be hours upon hours ... to clean this money up so that it’s even able to be spent,” he told FOX 5 Atlanta. “I think that’s going to be a lot of work for money I’ve already worked for.”
This story was originally published March 24, 2021 at 8:45 AM with the headline "Ex-boss dumps over 90,000 oily pennies in Georgia man’s driveway in pay dispute."