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The Dingo of Collins Street

Mar 27, 202241 minSeason 1Ep. 5
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Episode description

Forget the Wolf of Wall street, Dan is the Dingo of Collins street …

This is where Dan stops spending on the magic ATM card,  it all getting too much.
Hear how it all starts to come to an end and Dan's plan to end The Glitch

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Transcript

Speaker 1

Approacha Production, Episode five, The Dingo of Colin Street. If you've gotten this far in the podcast, you probably have some questions like me, questions like did he end up going to jail, does he have to pay back in either cash? Or did he stash any of the money away in a foreign country so we could use it later. I can't believe I actually asked that question from Dan, and he answered pretty directly.

Speaker 2

Firstly, if I.

Speaker 3

Did that, I wouldn't be talking about it with you.

Speaker 1

Good point.

Speaker 2

And secondly, they were just going to tack it off me anymore.

Speaker 1

If you've got questions, don't worry later in this episode how you can actually appear in episode eight, and asked Dan some of the questions you might have for yourself in the meantime, I wondered if Dan or any of his mates, or at least any of the hangers on invested their cash in crypto or something similar.

Speaker 3

Yeah, he wasn't really a Marke was. Yeah, someone I knew, and I knew a lot of people at that time, and there was money floating around. But I mean, you know, everyone got their fair fair whack of changed, so you know, anyone could sort of walk up and go hey, Dan, you know I want to do this? Can you give me some money to do it? And most people were like, Dan, I want to dare the two girls at the bar to like kiss? Can I five hundred bucks.

Speaker 2

To give it?

Speaker 3

But then there was other Yeah, there was thinkers. You know, there's people that are like, hey, Dan, can you give me some money because I want to start a business.

Speaker 2

I want to do this.

Speaker 3

I want to do that, you know, by far and away the guy who benefited, you know, and people say to me, you know, like he should give you some money and all that, and I'm like, look, I don't care. Like whatever people did with their little bit of the money, that's fine. But apparently he bought you know, some bitcoin when it wasn't worth very much, and now it's obviously worth quite a lot. I think he probably bought it like or bucks.

Speaker 1

But it's worth seventy one down. He wouldn't need.

Speaker 3

To have bought much. Put it that way, like, I don't know how much exactly he bought. I don't know how much, you know, money he's got now. But he said to me before, like if you want a car, I'll buy it for you. So I can only assume that he's made some decent money. But you know, again, I don't know, and you know, I don't even care, because it's like whatever it was, the spirit, it was in the spirit of.

Speaker 2

The whole thing.

Speaker 3

The whole thing was just an absolute you know, you got to do what you wanted to with the money. And you know a lot of people say to me, oh, you know, you wasted all the money. You know, it wasn't you know, you were done with the money and whatever. I was like, find your own ATM car and go for it. You know, the loopholes are out there.

Speaker 1

Although this is an amazing story and it sounds like Dan and his mates were having a brilliant time, at some point it was better to end Dan's breaking the law. The lawry's breaking is called theft by finding. That's when someone takes possession of something but fails to establish who owns it, which is essentially what Dan did. It wasn't his money, and he knew that, so I guess in layman's terms, it's like finding a big bag of money on the side of the road and you've got two choices.

You go and spend that money, or you take it to the cops and say I found this bag of money, and then I think you wait about three months and if no one comes forward, you get the money. I wanted to know if Dan ever thought of doing this, maybe going to the bank and saying, hey, I found this glitch in new system and it's giving me free money. I'll show you how it's been happening if you give me a job.

Speaker 2

I thought.

Speaker 3

I thought, yeah, like, I've obviously heard stories of people doing that before, but yeah, I never I never thought that that would be. Every time you talk to them, they're very they come across as being quite arrogant. So I didn't think that they were going to be on board with like, you know, oh you found a.

Speaker 2

Floor in our system. Oh that's very good, thanks very much.

Speaker 3

We'll give you a job now, or you know, like we'll meet with you. I don't think they would have done anything like that. I think they're I think they've got a communication issue.

Speaker 1

Since the glitch happened in twenty eleven, you can imagine that the banks might have knuckled down on their security. We tried to get a bank on to chat about their heightened security. Now guess what they said, No, So, how did this happen in twenty eleven. Well, each night, between midnight and early morning, the ATM machines would go into what was called standalone mode. This meant that they

weren't communicating with the bank systems. Now, for me, this was a Google search, But for Dan he learned this glitch firsthand.

Speaker 3

I think they've got smart ATMs now, like they say smart ADM.

Speaker 2

You know, the dumb ones of twenty eleven.

Speaker 3

Yeah, basically it goes into this mode where it's not really communicating with the main banks system. I guess it can perform transactions, it can perform tasks, but ultimately it doesn't know exactly you know, how much money is in your bank account at that time. And I think, yeah, I was doing the transfers at this time, and it was just you know, just a bit of call it what you want luck, wrong place, right time, right time, wrong place, whatever you want to call it. Like it

was just sheer fluke that I found it out. I found this out.

Speaker 1

It sounds like it was a really full time job for you to daily be thinking about how much you transferred, how much needs to go back? Set alarm for midnight? Am I going to get close enough? Like that's got it? It's got to be tough.

Speaker 3

It was tough, but it was also like the greatest job ever as well, because it was like like some sort of secret agent, you know, like you had this little system and to like to be tricking a massive bank with all these security you know, like they have like millions of computers and millions of you know people looking at them, you know, constantly monitoring transactions, and like it just felt like guy was invisible where I shouldn't have been.

Speaker 1

At this point, you have four months in, it's getting close to the end, which comes in a different way than you would expect. Did you think you were going to get caught?

Speaker 2

Still?

Speaker 3

Yeah, Like I never thought that I wouldn't get caught the whole knowing what I know now that I could have actually just walked away from this and nothing would have happened to me. That blows my mind even more than the fact that I, you know, sort of brought about my own demise in a way. But I didn't see it as being my demise. That was me getting my life back because I've lost who I was, so I didn't Yeah, I didn't identify with the person that

I was anymore. So I wanted to take a step to get that back, and I thought that ultimately being punished for what I did would.

Speaker 2

Be a good start.

Speaker 3

So yeah, I mean, I think it's reported in the media that like my conscience got me, Like it was sort of my conscience a bit. But I'd done everything I wanted to do. You know, I didn't want to do anything else. All I wanted to do is have a great time. And I had a great time.

Speaker 2

It was amazing.

Speaker 3

I wouldn't change any of it, you know. The only other option was to go overseas and transfer millions of dollars away and ultimately be you know, a fugitive, and and that I decided that wasn't me. I remember when I decided that I was going to stop, I had this sort of twitch in my in my right eye that had developed, and it developed is like a little just a little flicker.

Speaker 2

Underneath my eye.

Speaker 3

Like I thought I was getting some kind of neurological disease, Like I thought I was. Yeah, I thought I might be affected forever because my like that all the vessels underneath my eye.

Speaker 2

Just wouldn't stop pulse haating. And I guess it was just a.

Speaker 3

Product of the indrel and running through him for that long. I'm not sure, but I started the Yeah, I started to show real physical symptoms like something really bad was going to happen.

Speaker 2

So yeah, so I had to stop.

Speaker 3

I was like, I'm going to die. I'll have to stop. So yeah, so I told, you know, I told my mates. I told old mate and yeah, like he wasn't you know. It was like, this is the best thing that's ever happened to us.

Speaker 2

What are you doing? You know, why would you? Why did you give this up?

Speaker 3

And I'm like, I'm gonna feel like I'm gonna die, Like look in my eye it's like twitching like crazy, like this is not good.

Speaker 2

It's not a good situation. He's like, yeah, I know, but you know, like yeah, all right, right it's here. Yeah, it was real. Yeah, it started.

Speaker 1

It would flicker all day and I was like, n I've got.

Speaker 2

To I've got to get out of this. I've got to just I'm going to stop doing it.

Speaker 1

I'll get to the moment Dan decided to stop using his magic card in this episode and how it all ended. Surely, by now the bank's starting to ask questions. Surely they're thinking, hang on this, Dan Saunder's bloke doesn't have an the income and he's got more than a million dollars owing on his credit card. Maybe someone should call him. The bank did send Dan some letters, and to be honest,

it was laughable when you read them. This letter was dated the twenty fourth of June twoenty and eleven, a few months after the glitch started.

Speaker 3

Dear missus Saunders, did you know your account is overdrawn or over its limit?

Speaker 2

Count? Number? Blah blah blah.

Speaker 3

Account balance one million, six hundred and forty nine thousand, seven hundred and fifty four dollars and fifty nine cents debit. This is a reminder that your account is overdrawn and has been for twenty days. If you haven't done so already, it's important that you pay the overdrawn amount immediately or call us and talk about your situation.

Speaker 1

I've had one of these letters before, but never one that says my account is overdrawn by one point six million dollars. The funny thing is is this letter actually arrived a few months after Dan decided to stop spending. That's the reason the account was overdrawn, because he was no longer transferring cash from one account to the other.

The stress would have been crazy. Dan's eye started to twitch, and his friend and crewmember Evano, remembers seeing him a few nights before Dan decided to pull the pin.

Speaker 4

I think it was a mixture of the party, not so much the drugs, but just drinking a lot of alcohol all the time.

Speaker 2

It sort of, Yeah, it got.

Speaker 4

To him a little bit, and I could see the pressure was starting to get to him. Something something had had ticked. He was a bit more moody. He'd get angry really quickly. And this was unlike Dan Locke. He's one of the most easy gun blocks you'll ever meet. So yeah, there was there was pressure getting to him, that's sure.

Speaker 1

Were you then the nightdow and decided that it was over?

Speaker 4

No, I was the night he decided. I was in in my grada. Yeah, I was with him the weekend prior, which would have only been a few days prior. So, but yeah, I wasn't with him at the time.

Speaker 1

How'd you find out he was stopping?

Speaker 4

I'd called him and and this was a few days later, And yeah, he wasn't wasn't a partying or anything like that.

Speaker 2

He was.

Speaker 4

A little bit, a little bit down and dumps.

Speaker 1

I'd say, yeah, yeah, a bit depressed, just just a touch.

Speaker 4

Yeah, yeah, he I think the full weight of what he'd done was coming was coming on his shoulders.

Speaker 1

I mean, we talk about this amazing time that he had and you had, and you know the other crew that were with with you guys. He's pretty anxious.

Speaker 4

Then, anxious about what what would happen. Yeah, he looked he knew he was probably going to jail.

Speaker 1

Had he talked about that with you?

Speaker 4

Yeah, this at this point he had.

Speaker 1

Yeah, So by this stage, you know what's going on.

Speaker 4

By this stage I had known.

Speaker 2

Yeah.

Speaker 4

Yeah, And it was fairly late on the piece that I actually found out the full extent of it. But yeah, by this stage, I definitely knew what was going on. Yeah.

Speaker 3

I remember the night before, the night before I decided to give up, give it up, we were talking and I was we're sort of talking about how much you know, because it was very big that we were going to like I was going to go to jail, and we're sort of talking about it at the table. How long are you're going to go How long do you reckon you'll go to jail for sort of thing? And I was saying, like maybe ten years. I don't know it's pretty you know, it's got pretty out of hand.

Speaker 1

And how much were an indent by that stage?

Speaker 2

Oh yeah, like I think I think of that one boy six. Yeah, this lady over her.

Speaker 3

She comes to me later and she's like, I heard you're going to go to jail for all this. Like we're you know, in some residential sweet somewhere and everyone's having a great time, and you know, I was just having a private conversation with a couple of mates. She goes, look, I've had a great day. I want you to think about this in jail, and she basically grabs me. And she didn't I'm not going to say I was sexually assaulted, but but she grabbed me and pretty much like had had her away with me.

Speaker 2

Right then and there.

Speaker 3

During the time that she was doing that, she was like it almost turned her on in a way. I'm not sure, but she like was just saying to me repeatedly, think about this when you're in jail. Think about this when you're in jail. It was a bit of a like psycho moment, but also it seemed like a nice ending point, like I was just like, yeah, okay, you know what, right, this is all getting a bit bit nutso so I'm like, yeah, I think this is it.

Speaker 2

I think this is the end.

Speaker 3

So I announced it to the guys. I said look. The next day, I said, look, I'm going to stop doing the transfer.

Speaker 2

To no, Like, what are you talking about?

Speaker 3

You know, it's been a couple of guys were like, look, it's fair enough. Do whatever you want to do, like it's it's been a journey. It's been amazing and we'll never forget it. And then yeah, old mate was like, hey, like you got to keep going, but you can't stop now, Like like I think he said, don't be soft, like just kid like it was crazy individual anyway.

Speaker 1

Are you still friends with old mate now?

Speaker 3

Yeah, like are still friends? I don't really see him, but but like I can sider him a friend. He's like, you gotta do it, you got to do it, and I'm like, look, I can't do it anymore.

Speaker 2

That's it.

Speaker 3

Like you see this high, like it's getting worse. I'm not going to do it anymore.

Speaker 2

That's it.

Speaker 3

I've decided I'm not going to go overseas. I'm not going to do it anymore. I'm going to stop. That night, I opened up internet banking and I just logged on and then I just gave the laptop to the to all the guys, like just passed it around and said, if you want to transfer any money anywhere else, just do it. I don't want to know about it. I don't care, but if you want to do it, just do it now. And that's it. I don't even know

if they did. I'm not sure. You know, Quite often the loudest person in the room is like, once they've got to transfer it to their account.

Speaker 1

They're like, oh, I don't know about that, you.

Speaker 3

Know, so you know, you find out who's a bit soft in the end. But yeah, I was done.

Speaker 1

I was done.

Speaker 2

So I went to sleep. It was weird not going to the ATM.

Speaker 1

It was like, that's first night for four months.

Speaker 2

To one. I was like, you can still go, you can still go, you can still keep me gun. There's still part of me. Guy, I was still to a tin.

Speaker 1

This is like a drug addiction, right, yeah, gambling addiction, Like this is cold turkey.

Speaker 2

Absolutely yeah. So yeah, so I ultimately just just stopped doing it.

Speaker 3

And then I know the ship would He hit the fan at the bank the next day, probably because the accounts went into into debit by millions.

Speaker 5

And Dan decides to go cold Turkey, just cut off the cash stat and he now has over one point six million dollars in debt on his account and no job to pay it off.

Speaker 1

So what does he do?

Speaker 2

Oh, I mean, what can you do? I mean it was I had a little bit of money left, and.

Speaker 1

What's a little bit of money?

Speaker 3

Well, I had some some money, like in an account that wasn't a National Australia Bank account, and I had about eighty thousand dollars in a Hilton laundry back that I decided to check in to the height and I thought, I'll just put the eighty thousand dollars in the bathtub and I'll just live each day until I thought about being caught, and I was like, it's pretty like they're probably going to send you know, the heavies half to me.

They'll know where I am sort of thing. So I'm like, well, I'll just yeah, I'll just wait for them to come. But I don't want to pick me up, but you know, like mum's house or a friend of mine's house, Like I'll just run a hotel room and I'll just stay there, you know, like a you know, a modest you know, three hundred dollars a night deal room. It's just still pretty nice.

Speaker 1

With a barath tub full of money.

Speaker 3

With a bathtub full of money, but like eighty grand in the bottom of one of those bath tubles, it doesn't look much.

Speaker 1

I'll take your word for it.

Speaker 3

I didn't really have many people with me during that time, because I thought I was just going to get picked up. Like I still had a few friends that like stayed over and stuff, but we didn't even know, like they didn't even know the extent of what happened. But I didn't really know them before. So it was like it wasn't like, no, I'm just going to draw the connection with them because I didn't really have a connection.

Speaker 1

So are you trying to protect others?

Speaker 2

Yeah?

Speaker 3

Yeah, that's what we said all along, like I'm going down for this and I'm not expecting anyone else.

Speaker 2

Like it was sort of a thing.

Speaker 3

I was like, well, I've got the card and i know what we can do, and I've got to give money to all you guys because you're not going to get prosecuted for it I am, and then hopefully you guys will look after me down the track. You know, hopefully that that'll be the you know, and you know with some people that was on it, and with other people it wasn't. So you know, I was like sort of I was sort of like hedging my bets in

a way. You know, if you give you know, if you give six people an amount of money, then someone's going to like, you know, you know, one out of six is going to come back and go, oh, you know, I remember you gave me that one day. I'm going to help you out now sort of thing. So, yeah, I was the only one going down for it. I certainly wasn't going to talk about it with anyone else. But yeah, then the craziest thing of the whole thing happened, and no one came.

Speaker 2

Nothing. You can hear anything from anyone, No.

Speaker 1

Cops, no nothing, no bank nothing, no phone call nothing.

Speaker 3

The only phone call I got was the VIP manager from the betting accounts, Hey, damn, why don't you come back and have a bet. Even when I was on bail, I used to get those calls like all you know, two years later, even when the story was in the media, people from betting companies ringing saying when are you going to put your next to positive insane. It's like, do you guys read the news.

Speaker 1

So you're not getting caught anytime soon. No one's calling, cops aren't arriving at your door.

Speaker 3

No one did anything, so don't understand why. I've got to make contact with him somehow. But it's not an easy thing to do. You can't just go in and talk to the talent.

Speaker 2

She doesn't know or he doesn't know. So I went into a NAB branch and I called the house phone.

Speaker 3

I said, look, there's been some weird transactions on my accounts.

Speaker 2

I'm in the bank and I'm.

Speaker 3

Talking to the first person I get met, putting me on and on hold, on hold, on hold, and then eventually, after twenty minutes, I get through this guy named Bernie. Bernie was like, you're all like your school principal type, you know, like very you know, gets on the phone. He says, we won't be giving you any more more money.

Speaker 2

And I'm pretty sure you know why.

Speaker 3

And I'm like, yeah, well I didn't ask for any more money number one and number two, Yeah, I was wondering what's going on with that, you know, because it's been a little while. And he said, well, it's a matter for the police now. And I think I said, I don't know why, but I think I said, oh sorry. I think I said really sorry or something. He said, well, sorry, he's not going to cut it. You're going to jail for a long time. Then he said something that sort

of hurted me a bit. He said, you've ruined your life now, and I sort of thought, his life.

Speaker 2

Are you talking about? You don't know any about me.

Speaker 3

I reckon, you've ruined your life because you worked at.

Speaker 2

A bank for forty years, you know what I mean, each of their own mate.

Speaker 3

Basically, you're in a lot of trouble now. It's police investigation. We can't talk to you.

Speaker 2

Goodbye. So I was like, okay, well.

Speaker 1

How are you feeling? At that stage, I was like, you know, my I.

Speaker 2

Didn't get the twitchy I back.

Speaker 3

I lost the twitchy ice straight away, which I was real happy about.

Speaker 2

That was a big issue for me anyway. So I went back to the hotel.

Speaker 3

I'm like, okay, well, yeah, it's at least I've learned something, right, it's police investigation now.

Speaker 2

Now.

Speaker 1

Come Eventually after that called to the bank from the house phone, chatting with Bernie. You'd expect cops to bust down the door of the hyats and find Dan in his hotel robe, eating and drinking with eighty K and Cash sitting in the hotel bath. Keep them all civilian outside. But that doesn't happen.

Speaker 3

So anyway, one month goes past, I run out of money in the bath stump. So I'm like, you know that that kind of backfired because I thought I'd be arrested here and I, okay, well now I'm just going to go catch it. So I went to a few friends and you know.

Speaker 2

Hey, me, how are you going still here? Oh? Dad? Dance back O great.

Speaker 3

So, you know, just did the normal suburban stuff. You know, I had barbies and you know, that sort of thing just killed a bit of time.

Speaker 1

Are these the crew? Some of the crew that you were hanging.

Speaker 3

With, some of them are not really like more other friends? Yeah, people I met during the time and stuff like that. I lost some friends, but I made it made a few as well. So yeah, so I was just sort of hanging out with them and then yeah, I think three months ago is past and still nothing. So I'm just like, well, what am I supposed to do?

Speaker 2

Maybe I'll just go back and get a job.

Speaker 1

So did you see a lawyer in this time at all?

Speaker 3

I saw a lawyer to a sort of ask, but most lawyers said to me, just just.

Speaker 2

Shut up about it. I don't don't even worry about it.

Speaker 1

How did you pay for the lawyer?

Speaker 3

Well, my eventual lawyer, I paid with the money in the other account, which was the NAB money. So eighty grand.

Speaker 1

So hang on, you're paying a lawyer too, hopefully get you out of not going to jail for taking money from the NAB. With the money from the NAB.

Speaker 3

He didn't ask where the cash came from either. It's interesting anyway. Yeah, yeah, that's.

Speaker 2

What I did.

Speaker 1

So three months goes past.

Speaker 3

Yeah, three months goes past, and so I'm like, well, I might as well just get.

Speaker 2

A job, get back on the horse, so to speak.

Speaker 3

And yeah, so I started working in a place called Ringwood, a place called bos Sammy, I don't think it's there anymore, but full time job. And then always had you know, lingering in my mind, you know.

Speaker 2

Like they're going to tap you on my shoulder sooner or later. And yeah, it's sort of.

Speaker 3

It sort of went to the point where I was like, maybe I'm just gonna walk away from this and never you know, sort of know anything. I think it's just gonna it's just gonna go away. But then there was a big part of me saying, well, you can't just walk away from something like this. I mean, they're gonna they're going to catch up with you eventually. They're just taking their sweet time, you know, And I suppose that's

all I've got. You know, all I've got is to just hang me out for a little bit and let me sort of you know, uh stew on the window so to speak, you know, like something like that.

Speaker 2

So, yeah, so I went back to work.

Speaker 3

And that was fine for about I mean that would have been towards the end of twenty eleven.

Speaker 1

It really feels like Dan has just gone back to normal life. Months have passed, no police knocking on doors, no calls from the bank, no jail. I mean, it feels like Dan has gotten off scot free. Sure, he's got one point six million dollars overdrawn on his accounts that have been closed by the NAB, but that's about the worst of it. Dan gets a job at a restaurant and starts working again like he did back in Wangarata before the glitch happened.

Speaker 3

So I worked there twenty eleven into twenty twelve. In December twenty twelve, I get to work one day and the manager has left. I was like a supervisor, and the managers left the keys on the on the table, his keys on the table with a little note saying, you know, I can't there been a problem with people getting paid. So I was on a couple of weeks pay, and then there was kitchen staff. There were only a couple of weeks pay. And so I just got left this restaurant where the staff hadn't been paid.

Speaker 1

And you're going to assume management duties essentially.

Speaker 3

Well essentially, yeah, I mean I could have walked away too, I guess. But I mean I was like, well, you know, surely it's going to you know, surely they can't just not pay everyone'nluckily.

Speaker 2

It's going to turn around soon.

Speaker 3

The owners of the place, I got them, I got them on the phone eventually, and they said, I was just having you know, some cash flow issues. It will be sorted soon. Just keep running at the restaurant, you know, like everyone got paid. I'm like, okay, we'll keep running

the restaurant. Sure, So for the next week, we just ran the restaurant as normal, and then the next week we didn't get paid either, so became sort of apparent that they weren't they didn't have any intention of and every every dollar that was going through on FPOs on the cards was just being that that got paid to a bank account that we didn't as a manager of that restaurant, I didn't have any access to, so that

was all going out to a head office. Then just these two guys show up I don't nowhere really and say I wear from the Collingwood Football Club and we're going to buy this restaurant.

Speaker 2

I'm like, oh, okay, great.

Speaker 3

So I thought, okay, so they're going to they're going to buy the restaurant. They seem he was he was involved in you know, he looked legit. He was from from Collingwood. He said that the club was going to buy the restaurant. So I was like, fine, no problem. And so we decided as a collective group that we would run the restaurant for cash because it was still owned by the previous owners. So they said, look, can everyone stay on board because we're going to have a

changeover in a few weeks. And so I thought, well, what we'll do is we'll run the restaurant for cash, and the whole team agreed, and we'll pay back every staff entitlement via cash over the next sort of three weeks, so we can at least get some other money back.

I didn't know whether I was like the cleaner hadn't been paid for seven weeks, and like it was it was quite a situation like there that the suppliers hadn't been paid, so they were all coming in, you know, threatening and chop people's legs off and that sort of thing if they didn't get paid.

Speaker 2

It was quite a situation.

Speaker 3

It was a bit of a pressure cook but still no twitch, right, So I've been through, you know, and you know, these this kind of stuff before I find out that these guys who said they were from Collingwood, very very close with the previous owners.

Speaker 2

And what they're doing is they're phoenix into place.

Speaker 3

So they're basically they're bring in like they're acting like they're selling it, but it's really just a just a changeover. And then all the debts get wiped and you know, anyone who wants to stay on, they go, oh, we're new, so you.

Speaker 1

Know, that debt exists, doesn't exist anymore, it exists with someone else.

Speaker 2

You'rero three weeks pay.

Speaker 3

Sorry about that, but you know, right. So I learned that the guy coming in from Collingwood obviously won't name anyone, but the guy coming in from Collingwood, I learned that he was a business advisor to the previous owners. So they were very very close, Like it didn't take much research online to figure that out. So basically I was like, well, look if they come in and they sought everything out, like I don't have an issue, Like it's fine, you know.

So they said that you know people people should you know, will get paid with the settlement and all that, but it was all just a bit of a bit of a face. So they employed They were so underprepared that they employed me as their manager moving forward under the new ownership. So I was like, these guys have just done this massive, shonky job. So basically I ran the restaurant for them for the next month and a half, two months and then after Australia. After Australia, I still

had the chicken man. He was threatening to cut my legs off, so I knew I had to.

Speaker 1

Get him the chicken man being the one that sold chickens to the restaurant. Yeah okay, yeah, happily named the chicken man.

Speaker 2

Yeah, the chicken man. He was like he was scary.

Speaker 3

Actually during this time that the Ringwood magistrates caught right, used to come over for lunches. So the magistrates and stuff came over and one of them asked me one day, why are you running the restaurant for cash? And I told him the whole situation. I was like, oh, this is going on, you know, and anyway, so you know it's very interesting, right right.

Speaker 2

And so we got the sheriff showing up.

Speaker 3

You know, like all this will be in the records.

Speaker 2

It's not like I'm making it up.

Speaker 3

Like the the sheriff was there trying to collect money, you know, all that sort of thing. Australia after Australia Day Weekend, Big weekend.

Speaker 1

I went, this is two thousand and thirteen, twenty thirty.

Speaker 3

You guys need to be taught a lesson, right, So I took all the money out of the safe to pay the chicken man. I needed cash, so I took like twenty one thousand dollars out of the safe. After Austraight day weekend, and I gave the chicken man ten grand and then I took some of the staff out.

Speaker 2

For a like goodbye meal, and then I just I just split.

Speaker 3

I wouldn't have done that unless I did, you know, unless I had the thing happened with the card, like, it's sort of like I'd already.

Speaker 2

Crossed the line.

Speaker 3

So I was just like, well, you know, I know this is not going to be looked upon in a very good light, and I know this.

Speaker 2

Ultimately, Yeah, they're.

Speaker 3

Just going to dress it up and say it was just struck theft, but everyone who works there knows what the story was. I got to talk to the people who work at the restaurant, and afterwards they were running around like heaveless chucks and didn't know what to do.

Speaker 2

And that is exactly what I wanted them to do.

Speaker 3

I wanted them to freak out and feel what it's like to lose something, so maybe they wouldn't be so quick in the future to try fuck people over just for the sake of a dollar.

Speaker 1

Everyone I speak to about Dan, or at least anyone that likes him, says that he's an honest bloke who has a deep sense of injustice and doesn't like any of the little guys being fucked over. Dan hates the banks and the big guys and it's about looking after the little guy. So at this point, Dan's living in in Queensland. No police have contacted him, and it's been over two years.

Speaker 2

Yeah, we're getting to about two years.

Speaker 1

Two years since you had one point six million dollars o to the National Australia Banks. Yeah, and no one's called you crickets. Nothing, not a miscall to an old number, the email to your mum because she possibly was next to king.

Speaker 3

I used to open Internet banking and check it all out and.

Speaker 1

Still show that you're Yeah, it.

Speaker 3

Was just just show that they wrote the dead off. They just wrote it off, and yeah, it just it just the accounts were just open as normal.

Speaker 1

Yeah, you could have just gotten away with it that stage.

Speaker 3

Yeah, you could have just but I didn't have any idea if that was if they were going to come one day.

Speaker 2

So for me, that wasn't enough.

Speaker 3

I couldn't get my I couldn't get my sanity back.

Speaker 1

You're still anxious at this point. No twitching eye, but yeah, twitch was pretty bad.

Speaker 3

But yeah, the point is that I didn't, Like, there's no point where I was like, oh, this is going to be okay, Like I'm just going to be all right here, Like like if it didn't happen to you, you could probably just go, oh.

Speaker 2

Yeah, why don't you just walk away?

Speaker 3

You know, But if you're going to live in the same town, be in the same country, like you would.

Speaker 2

Have thought eventually that have to come.

Speaker 3

But I think that's just a reflection of how.

Speaker 2

Banks do business. Then they're willing to just write it off and just send it away like that's it never happened.

Speaker 1

Pretty embarrassing for you too, I know.

Speaker 2

I don't think they're capable of embarrassment.

Speaker 1

Right. A company can't feel embarrassment because it's a company. Right. However, there are people who will be going like there would have been meetings where someone's gone, on, what do we do about this? Yeah, like there's a right off department. I'm sure, yeah, for sure, right that have gone, oh well one point six million bucks.

Speaker 2

Yeah, okay, don't worry about it.

Speaker 1

Here we make about no police contact. A couple of years later.

Speaker 2

Yeah, nothing nothing.

Speaker 1

So what do you do?

Speaker 3

Yeah, so you know, I can't I can't sit in front of you and say I was completely of sound mind.

Speaker 2

I don't know.

Speaker 3

Why I did this, but I just didn't. I thought, well, a good way maybe to get some closure would be to contact the media and tell them my story and say, hey, look, you know now, I didn't think that the media would drum it up as much as they did, like they really, like, you know, went overboard.

Speaker 2

On the whole thing.

Speaker 3

But all I wanted to do, because I couldn't get any answers, was I just wanted to know the status of the investigation. Well, first of all was their one And second of all, I just want to know the status because you know, like I'm I'm ready to go.

Speaker 1

You know, you're not a dumb guy. That's pretty naive though, to not think the media is going to make this a story Like I knew.

Speaker 3

I knew what they what they do, but I didn't know that there. I didn't know their quest for the truth would be yeah, so so blurry.

Speaker 1

We've established the Dan is no mastermind, and he has made some pretty dumb decisions, and in this decision to use the media as his way of getting some sort of resolution to the glitch. Twenty fourteen and you're in the city morning Herald your story you said it wasn't that great story, it was missing a few facts and whatever. Alsably beaten up a little bit.

Speaker 3

Yeah, well, I mean, you know they I mean, I'm not in charge of like the content direction and the Sydney Morning Herald or the Good Weekend, you know. So they say, oh, can we, you know, take your photo of you in a suit? I'm like, yeah, all right, can we put you on a private jet?

Speaker 2

Yeah? Sure, okay whatever. You know.

Speaker 3

So, but they run this story and it looks like I'm like having a big like gloat about it.

Speaker 1

All. You're the Wolf of Wall Street.

Speaker 3

Well you know, like yeah, the ding go of Colin Street.

Speaker 1

In the next episode of The Glitch, Dan's decision to use the media to get caught pays off in the strangest of ways.

Speaker 3

I'm just trying to get like, I'm just trying to get caught for something that seems it seems.

Speaker 2

Hard to get caught for at this point.

Speaker 3

But you'd think that if you stole me your goals from a bank, if I was an America, I would have.

Speaker 2

Been in jail. Like in forty five.

Speaker 1

Seconds, you go to Australia's best crime reporter. Yeah, Adam Jack. Yeah, so that article from Adam was posted on August nine, twenty fourteen. You started the Magic Card in feb of twenty eleven. Yeah, that's a long time between drinks, so to speak.

Speaker 3

Absolutely, absolutely, Like I was picturing like I'm going to meet someone, I'm going to have a son or a daughter, and I'm going to be one years old and the cops are going to knock on the door and go, yeah you know that things, you have an over, You're gone.

Speaker 1

That's next time on the Glitch. If you're enjoying the Glitch and have some questions for Dan, here's your chance to come on the podcast in episode eight and ask Dan anything. Just send us an email with your question and your contact details to the Glitch at podshape dot com. That's the Glitch one word at pod shape PO D s h A p e dot com.

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