Presenting... American Criminal: The Great McDonald's Monopoly Heist

up with Robin one on one. She's been going through a hard time lately and it would be nice to be able to vent a little to her friend, but Robin's husband, Jerry, is just always around, which is making it hard for Gloria to really open up. She doesn't know this guy, and while he's got a certain charm to him, it feels like an act to Gloria, like

maybe he's hiding his real personality beneath the surface. So as she and Robin finished preparing the meal and bring the dishes to the table, Gloria can't help feeling relieved. She's going home tomorrow. Sure, all of her financial troubles will be waiting for her, but at least she'll be free of Jerry. The trio raised their glasses in a quick toast, and then before Gloria has finished her first bite of food, Robin fixes her with an intense look and says she needs to talk to her about something.

Neither she or Jerry have touched their plates yet, so Gloria senses this is important, like maybe it's the whole reason she was invited here in the first place. Trying to sound casual, she says she's all ears. That's when Robin starts talking about McDonald's, specifically their famous monopoly promotional game, the one that's been running for as long as Gloria can remember. She nods along, talking about the prizes she'd love to win, mostly just to fill in the quiet,

while Robin lights a cigarette after taking a drag. Robin explains that the whole thing fixed. Those people you see on the TVs saying they've won a million dollars, they didn't win anything, They were chosen, and you want to know who chooses the winners. With a dramatic flourish, Robin points to her husband, him he's the one with all the power. Gloria's eyes widen as she listens to her friend explaining the scheme. How Jerry's been choosing all of

the million dollar winners for years now. McDonald's does it this way to make sure that only good people win the money. They don't want anyone with an embarrassing criminal history or something like that tied to the company.

But Jerry's smile looks more like a smirk. Makes Gloria think there's more to this than Robin's letting on, And suddenly she's wondering should she take the money or run for her life from airship. I'm Jeremy Schwartz, and this is American criminal. In nineteen oh three, amateur inventor and political activist Lizzie McGee put the finishing touches on a board game she'd come up with as a way to

demonstrate the inequalities in America's economic system. The game invited players to move their tokens around a square board and forced them to pay rent every time they landed on a property they didn't own. She called it the Landlord's Game, and it developed a small but passionate following. Three decades later, heater salesman Charles Darrow played Lizzie's game at a dinner party with friends and saw it as a potential moneymaker. He took the Landlord's game, removed some of the criticisms

of capitalism, and renamed it Monopoly. When his stolen version of the game became a hit, Charles sold the rights to Parker Brothers, who paid Lizzie five hundred dollars so she wouldn't try to defend her patent. The company also gave her a promise in writing to credit her as the game's inventor in all future editions. It was a promise Parker Brothers never fulfilled, denying Lizzie recognition for inventing a game that was becoming a staple in homes around

the country. And while Lizzie McGhee's role in the creation of Monopoly was quietly smudged out, Charles Darrow went on to become an incredibly wealthy man who was lauded as an early innovator in the world of board games. The point I'm trying to make is that life isn't always fair. Lizzie did everything right. She created something new and innovative, she got a patent to protect her intellectual property. Then when someone violated her patent, she negotiated in good faith,

and she still got screwed. Unfortunately, that's not the only time that the game of Monopoly was used to screw people out of millions. This is episode one in our three part series on the great McDonald's Monopoly heist.

there's nowhere for customers to sit and eat. Instead, people are expected to drive up and place their orders with car hops, young women in short skirts and majorrette boots, and then eat right there in their cars. Strictly speaking, this is not a brand new idea, but it's not the norm here in San Bernardino, so Richard and Maurice are nervous about how locals will react. Still, they're hopeful it'll be a hit. They're determined to make their fortune

and the restaurant game. Maybe they'll make tens of thousands of dollars, they think, even more if they're lucky. Of course, these guys got no idea just how big their little barbecue join'll get one day.

brothers think they can do better. They've noticed that some of their items have been a lot more popular than others, so they want to streamline things, less overhead, more customers, more money. When they reopen in December nineteen forty eight, they go all in on their real moneymakers, Hamburgers. They also replace their car hops with a cashier who takes

orders at a counter plate. Silverware and dishwashing staff give way to paper wrappers and cups, and they replace their old kitchen with a new, hyper efficient layout, with staff working on an assembly line to churn out burgers as fast as possible. That way, customers can get their food just seconds after they walk up, then be on their way.

It's a bold gamble to take a risk on a concept that discourages customers from lingering at the restaurant, but it's one that takes off, and before long, the McDonald brothers have turned their restaurant into a franchise, with the second location in California and a third in Arizona. Gradually they expand their menu to offer French fries and milkshakes. That's what brings Ray Kroc out to California in nineteen

fifty four. He's a milkshake machine salesman, and he wants to know why one restaurant owns eight of his products. When Ray pulls up to the McDonald's in San Bernardino, he sees people lining up to order trays full of burgers, fries, and plenty of milkshakes. The number of customers impresses Ray, sure, but more than that, he can't get over the pure efficiency of the place how quickly they can churn out

food for people like the McDonald brothers. Ray's keen to make a fortune for himself, and he's pretty sure he's just found as golden goose. He sets up a meeting with Richard and Maurice and convinces them to let him have the franchise rights. From there, he institutes a model of hyper efficiency, and every news store the company opens, not only will customers be able to buy their food and leave with it just moments later, they're guaranteed to

have the same experience in whichever restaurant they visit. It's comfort when you're away from home. It's an easy meal when you're short on time. It's a shining example of American capitalism. By nineteen sixty, McDonald's restaurants around the country are grossing fifty six million dollars annually, and that's only the beginning. The company soon expands beyond the US, with stores opening in Europe, Asia, and as far away as

New Zealand. But towards the end of the nineteen seventies, McDonald's is looking for ways to make their customers happier. In particular, they want the whole experience to become family friendly. It's a big shift from thirty years ago when Richard and Maurice wanted to get people in and out.

It's not the first time toys are used to directly market to kids, but as sure as a masterclass and doing it right, obviously, the Happy Meals are a hit. Kids love the toys and with multiple options available, they have to come back several times if they want to collect the whole set.

of properties, and you win a prize. There are also instant win pieces that mostly give out low value items like fries and desserts, but there are some instant wins for the million bucks, just not a lot. The odds of pulling a million dollar winner somewhere in the region of one and two hundred and fifty million. People don't let the odds stop them. They flock to McDonald's in droves, buying the products that come with game pieces, hoping to

hit the jackpot. The game is a massive success, and before it's even over, executives are already talking about bringing it back the following year. Now, what's really important to know about the whole thing is that McDonald's doesn't actually have anything to do with running this monopoly promotion. The people behind the scheme are a company called Simon Marketing, the same team who helped develop the Happy Meal. McDonald's knows Simon can deliver, so they're responsible for everything from

start to finish. McDonald's contracts them to print the game tokens, send them to stores, and carefully disseminate the high value pieces across the country. That means that McDonald's corporate has no idea where the winners will be when the pieces turn out, well, except that McDonald's restaurants they'll definitely be there. In nineteen eighty eight, the campaign returns and McDonald sees

a huge jump in sales during the months that it runs. Sure, they have to pay out millions in prizes, but the increased profits more than cover the expense. If customers want more tokens, they can buy more products.

Monopoly theme, but the basic concept stays the same. By products, get game pieces, collect set to win, and with every new version of the promotion they run ads featuring people who won prizes the last time, cars, vacations, jet skis, cold hard cash. Everyday. People are really winning these things. All they had to do was go directly to McDonald's. On the surface, it seems like there's no downside to this.

People can go get a burger, some fries, maybe have a fun meal out with their family, maybe win a camcorder in new TV, and in the back of their mind there's that exciting thought that they might just be one of the lucky ones to find that million dollar game piece. For the first couple of years, the game runs exactly as planned. Everyone's got the same one to two hundred and fifty million chance of becoming an instant millionaire. But in nineteen eighty nine, one man will find a

way to corrupt this incredibly popular game. He'll take it upon himself to say, see that no one in America will genuinely win those million dollar prizes ever again. It's the spring of nineteen eighty in Hollywood, Florida. Jerome Jacobson lies in the hospital bed, frustrated, kind of scared. A few days ago, thirty seven year old Jerry collapsed with a terrifying paralysis that affected his legs, arms, eyes, and

respiratory system. His wife Marcia rushed him to the emergency room, and he's been stuck in a bed ever since, waiting for answers. Since he's arrived, he's slowly regaining the feeling in his limbs and his vision is coming back, but he's ready for this nightmare to be over. Beside him, Marcia asked Jerry if he wants another sip of water. He shakes his head head he doesn't want a drink, He just wants answers. Just then, as if responding to his prayers, a doctor walks into the room and announces

that they finally got results back on their tests. Jerry shuffles in the bed, trying to sit up a little straighter, but he can't even manage that. Resigned to his discomfort, he tells the doctor he's ready to hear the worst. Slowly, she explains that he has Giambret syndrome, which means his body's immune system is attacking his nerves. It's a rare condition and there's no known cure, but it's possible to

make a recovery with careful treatment and rehabilitation. Still, it'll be a tough road ahead, and Jerry's life will probably look different from now on. He might live with muscle weakness for a number of years, and he'll need plenty of support from his loved ones.

he tried not to let that get to him. One day, he'd leave all that behind. He had big dreams of getting a job that gave him plenty of authority and respect, and in his early twenties he enlisted with the Marines. Unfortunately for Jerry, his time in the armed forces was short lived.

in Hollywood, Florida. It might not have felt quite as prestigious as the Marines, but it was a job that came with built in authority in a less physically rigorous screening process, and for a little while, things seemed to be going well for Jerry. Then, about a year after he was sworn onto the force, he injured his wrist on the job. It was so bad that he had to take extended medical leave. While he was still off work.

In nineteen eighty, he started experiencing extreme pain in one of his hands, which soon developed into a creeping numbness and eventually the paralysis that landed him in the hospital. The diagnosis of Giamboret's syndrome is just one more blow that Jerry really doesn't need. He was already feeling pretty you, not being able to work, and now his wife will also have to take time away from her job on

the force to care for him. After he's discharged from the hospital, Jerry goes home, where Marcia has to bathe and feed him every day and give the massages to help his recovery. But although she obviously loves her husband deeply, she doesn't let him wallow. She says he can have fifteen minutes to feel sorry for himself each morning, but then he has to get on with his life. Misery's

no good here. With Marcia's support, Jerry shows clear signs of improvement, but it's obvious that he'll never be able to rejoin the police force. In nineteen eighty one, the Hollywood PD let him go, meaning that he's got to start over once again. After that, Jerry and Marcia decide that Florida has brought them enough bad luck for one lifetime, so they moved north to Atlanta, Georgia. By now, Jerry's recovered enough that he picks up some work as a mechanic,

but Marsha's still the breadwinner. She leaves her police job behind to take a position as a security auditor for an accounting firm. Now, her new employers could assigned Marsha to any of their clients, but they just so happen to place her with the Dittler Brothers, a printing company.

of high value pieces of paper. In nineteen eighty seven, Dittler are contracted by Simon Marketing to create and distribute all of the game pieces for the new McDonald's marketing campaign. At this stage, Jerry's been with the company for around six years and is pretty high in their security team, so he's given the job of overseeing everything related to the monopoly promotion.

on his watch. Of course, making sure that hundreds of millions of game pieces remained under Dittler's control is only part of the job. The most important aspect, though, is taking care of the winning tokens, the rare property titles the customers will need to complete the set, and the big ticket instant wins. Those get an extra level of

attention for starters. They're each printed using black lighting and feature tiny flaws in the text, a corner missing from the crossbar of the letter T, or a slightly crooked punctuation mark. That way, they'll be almost impossible to counterfeit. Once the winning pieces come off the printer, Jerry locks them away in a vault with multiple layers of security until the time comes for the prize draw. Now year's

where things get more complicated. Before the start of each Monopoly campaign, a computer program is used to determine where the high value pieces will be sent. In other words, the winning tokens aren't just inserted at random into packets of other game pieces and then sent out into the world.

What happens is this program will randomly select the location of another printing shop that makes McDonald's packaging, and that's where the pieces will be sent so in theory, Simon Marketing and Dittler Brothers will know what areas winners will come from ahead of time because they're the ones bringing the pieces there, and because these game pieces are so valuable, Jerry doesn't trust just anyone to bring them to their final destination. No, no, it's a job you only trust

one person with himself. So when it's time to send the pieces out into the wild, Jerry and an independent auditor insert a winner into an envelope with a bunch of regular game pieces. The envelope is then sealed using a tamper proof holographic sticker. If anyone opens the envelope, the broken sticker will be a dead giveaway. And these stickers are specially created by another company just for this campaign, so it's not like someone can buy extra to stage

some kind of heist anyway. Jerry and this auditor locked the envelope into a briefcase with the combination opening. He chooses the code for one side, she chooses the code for the other. There's no way for one of them to get into it without the other being there. Then they board a plane together. Jerry's got the briefcase handcuffed to his wrist. Then they fly to the airport closest

to the chosen factory. Once they get there, Jerry and the auditor open the briefcase in front of all the employees. Then Jerry makes a big show of opening the envelope and carefully inserting the pieces into the packs that will be sent to the nearby distribution points. The dozen or so extra pieces are there to make sure that no one can track whichbox contains a winner. Like I said, it's a complicated process, but it's one that Jerry takes a lot of pride in and it's a role he's

well compensated for. In nineteen eighty eight, Simon Marketing hire him away from Dittler Brothers to be their head of security. There he earns four maybe five times what he'd be making as a cop, which is nice, but it's not just the money. He likes getting the travel regular and quickly he becomes obsessed with getting gold status.

Sales at McDonald's go up, customers win millions of dollars worth of prizes, and everyone's happy. The employees at Simon Marketing and Dentler Brothers pat themselves on the back for a job well done. And at the center of it all is Jerry Jacobson. But despite his outward commitment to rules and integrity, Jerry's far from perfect, and soon enough, the temptation to cheat the system will prove too great

to resist. It's the summer of nineteen eighty nine and forty six year old Jerry Jacobson is just arriving at a family barbecue. He walks inside his cousin's house and heads straight to the kitchen so he can put his beers in the fridge. Then, after making the rounds to say hello to his relatives, he heads back out to find his brother. Technically, Marvin Braun is Jerry's stepbrother, which is important for the purposes of this story. Jerry finds

Marvin by the grill and pulls him aside. They need to talk, he says, and he leads Marvin away from the noise to a secluded spot in the backyard. Once they're alone, Jerry thrusts a hand into his pocket and pulls out a small plastic bag. He hands it to Marvin, who inspects it. Inside is a single game piece from the latest MacDonald's Monopoly promotion. But unlike most of the pieces Marvin seen in the past, this one doesn't look

like a typical property square on the board game. There's just text here revealing that the bearer has won twenty five thousand dollars. About a month ago, Jerry mentioned to Marvin that he might be able to get his hands on this exact game piece. Everyone knows that Jerry works for the company that manages the monopoly game for McDonald's, but it still didn't seem possible that he'd just be

able to produce a winning ticket whenever he wanted. Now he's essentially handed as stepbrother a check for twenty five grand Marvin should send the game piece in, he says. Then they can split the winnings fifty to fifty. Marvin blinks, inspecting the small token in his hand, while Jerry explains exactly what he has to do to claim the prize. Jerry is very proud of himself for pulling this off, and if it works out, he sure he'll be able

to do it again. Exactly how Jerry manages to get his hands on the first few winning game pieces isn't clear, but it's possible that the instant win prizes below a certain dollar amount aren't guarded quite as fiercely as the major ones. However, it happens Jerry successfully hands off a winning piece to his stepbrother in nineteen eighty nine, and Marvin claims the twenty five grand without a hitch. Jerry probably chose Marvin as his test case, not because they're

especially close, but because they don't share a surname. That means Marvin wouldn't set off any alarm bells when he claimed the money.

come to Jerry and make the request. He wants to win a prize, but Jerry's not sure that's a good idea. It'd be too easy to make the connection between the two of them, he says, But the butcher isn't phased. They'll find a distant relative to claim the prize. After thinking it over for a few days, Jerry decides, yeah, that's a good plan. Of course, he's not just gonna

give the winning piece away with Marvin. He asks for a fifty percent cut of the money, but he's willing to take less this time, so he sells the ten thousand dollars instant winner to his butcher for two thousand dollars cash. Easy money, but I mean it can't last. Eventually, the fervor around the monopoly game gets so big that

McDonald's decides it's time to change up its procedures. Instead of individual game pieces that get handed to customers with their purchase, the tokens are pealed off a secure role behind I'm the counter. So for the next couple of years, Jerry is cut out of the chain of distribution and his little side hustle is put on hold. But it's only temporary. It's nineteen ninety five and Jerry Jacobson's fifty two. Just before nine am, he pulls into his parking spot at Simon Marketing and heads inside.

worth millions. It's a thick roll of holographic stickers, the kind Simon Marketing and Dittler Brothers used to transport the McDonald's Monopoly game pieces.

on the big ticket prizes. Jerry recognizes that right away, and his brain kicks into high gear. It's time to restart a scheme, and this time he's gonna take it up a notch. By the time the stickers are mistakenly delivered to Jerry Jacobson's desk, he's become disillusioned with the job to think made him special. It's nothing his company's done, it's their client McDonald's. Later, Jerry will tell the story

like this. He's in the room when the computer program is randomizing where winning game pieces will be sent to. That's standard, but that day the system designates a factory in Canada as the lucky destination before anyone could start the process to bring the pieces up north. Though McDonald's executives order Jerry to run the program again. They don't

want any of the big winners going to Canada ever. Again, this is Jerry's version of events, and there's no public evidence backing up his story, but he'll later point to this moment as his reason for doing what he does next, because after he gets his hands on those stickers, Jerry uses them to steal the highest value game pieces, and how he does it is laughably simple. Remember that the

envelopes containing the winners are locked in a briefcase. Jerry puts the code in for one lock, and the independent auditor chooses the other code. They're each supposed to look away while the other sets their code, but Jerry just makes a show of looking away. He quickly peeks while the auditor spins the dials. Now he's got both codes to open a briefcase. Still, once the envelope is inside the case, it's handcuffed to Jerry's wrist and the two of them go straight to the airport. The auditors by

his side the entire time. That's her job to keep him honest, but Jerry finds an easy workaround. Once they get off the plane at their destination, he says he's got to use the bathroom. Then he just walks into the men's room alone while the auditor waits patiently outside. Jerry locks himself in a stall, opens the briefcase and removes the envelope. He peels the sticker up, tips the couple dozen pieces into his pocket, and replaces them with a bunch of worthless pieces he swiped from the factory.

Then he reseals the envelope with a brand newsticker, locks it inside the briefcase again, and heads back to meet.

watch a million dollars go down the drain. Then Marvin turns to Jerry and tells him to cut it out. He's gotten away with it for now, but it's gonna blow up in his face sooner or later. Jerry sighs and tells Marvin he's right. He'll stop stealing pieces. It's not worth the risk. Marvin goes home that night, thinking he's turned his brother around. But here's the deal, Jerry Jacobson is a liar. He's not going to stop. In fact, he's just getting started from airship. This is episode one

in our series on the Great McDonald's Monopoly heist. On the next episode, Jerry starts finding allies to help him recruit winners for his scheme, but with every person who gets roped in, the risk of getting caught goes way up.

We use many different sources while preparing this episode. A few we can recommend to the Daily Beast article howen ex cop Rick McDonald's Monopoly game and Stole Millions by Jeff mash, the HBO documentary series mcmillions, and the book of the same name by James Lee Hernandez and Brian Lazarde. This episode may contain reenactments or dramatized details, and while in some cases we can't know exactly what happened, all our dramatizations are based on historical research. American Criminal is

a co production of Airship and Evergreen Podcasts. It's hosted, edited, and produced by me Jeremy Schwartz. Audio editing and sound designed by Sean ruhl Hoffman. Music by throm This episode is written and researched by Joel Callen, Managing producer Emily Burt. Executive producers are Joel Callen, William Simpson, and Lindsay Graham.