The most inconvenient way to get rich

Summary

CrimeLess – "The Most Inconvenient Way to Get Rich"

Podcast: CrimeLess (iHeartPodcasts + Smartless Media)
Hosts: Rory Scovel (comedian) and Josh Dean (journalist/podcaster)
Date: January 14, 2026

---

Episode Overview

This episode dives humorously into “the dumbest way to steal a quarter million dollars”—by literally stealing millions of coins. Josh and Rory break down two outrageous—but real—heists where thieves wound up with an absurd volume of physical money in the peskiest possible denominations: dimes and commemorative $1 coins. Through banter, audience asides, and a surprising educational bent on crime logistics, the hosts analyze the thefts, the criminals’ (lack of) planning, and how a simple heist turns into a logistical and legal quagmire when your loot is basically pocket change.

---

Key Discussion Points and Story Breakdown

1. “The Dumbest Way to Steal a Quarter Million Dollars”: The Philly Dime Heist

Segment: Starts at [02:37]

• Set-Up:

  • Josh asks: “What is the dumbest way to steal a quarter million dollars?” ([02:49])
  • Rory jokes: “Create a crypto meme coin and get elected President of the United States.” ([02:58])

• Context:
  Four Philly men—Rakim Savage, Ronald Bird, Hanif Palmer, and Malik Palmer—affected with dreams of big-time crime, notorious group chats, and no clear plans.

• Heist Details:

  • They belonged to the Omerta gang (named after the Mafia code of silence).
    Josh reads racketeering’s definition: “A type of organized crime in which the perpetrators set up a coercive, fraudulent, extortionary or otherwise illegal...coordinated scheme or operation—a ‘racket’—to repeatedly or consistently collect a profit.” ([07:13])
  • Their usual MO: overnight cargo truck theft. They often had no clue what was inside, sometimes stealing “hundreds of pounds of frozen shrimp” and “75-inch Samsung flat screens.” ([09:15])

• The Mint Truck Incident ([11:03]):

  • A driver parked an 18-wheeler filled with US Mint dimes (fresh from the Philadelphia branch) in a Walmart lot and went home to sleep.
    • Rory reacts: “That’s insane... Maybe try to get 100 miles in or leave it at the mint and just pick it up in the morning.” ([11:45])
  • The theft: Six men use bolt cutters, open the trailer, and discover six tons of dimes—about $750,000 in total value.
    • Josh: “6 tons of tiny silver Harry Truman dimes. How much money do you think 6 tons of dimes is?” ([12:23])
    • Rory (guess): “A quarter million?”

• Logistical Nightmare:

  • Pallets are too heavy to lift, so they spill dimes while separating them into smaller bags. Dimes are everywhere—they end up stealing roughly $234,000 but leave more behind in the parking lot. ([13:06])
  • Rory observes: “Imagine picking up thousands and thousands of dimes off the ground in a Walmart parking lot. That’s only like $5 worth.” ([13:57])

• Laundering the Loot:

  • The criminals, proud and oblivious, send photos of themselves swimming in truck beds full of dimes and screenshots of news reports about their own crime. ([15:42])
  • They use Coin Stars and local bank branches to convert dimes into cash:
    • The maximum single Coin Star payout they got: $990.44, meaning “It would take them at least 236 visits to deposit all those dimes.” ([19:44])
    • They also tried making deposits of $1,400–$1,500 at banks. Rory: “$1,400 in dimes is about 70 pounds. Think large dog…nine-year-old boy.” ([20:26])
  • Josh notes their mistake: “In order to deposit the bags of dimes, Malik...supplied his name, phone number, address, and a copy of his driver’s license.” ([21:21])

• Investigation and Arrest:

  • Police are tipped off by the group’s own texts, Coin Star surveillance, bank deposit patterns, and detailed documentation of their loot.
    • Rory quips: “Oh, he’s got one of those bags with a dollar sign, with the money sign on the outside, like those canvas bags. Cartoon bag.” ([21:45])
  • Arrests follow in October. The case is designated “complex”—“maybe because they had to count all the dimes, they just stuffed them all back into those little tubes.” ([22:40])
  • Case remains unresolved at air date due to its bizarre and “complicated” nature.

Notable Quotes

• “They may as well have added prosecutors to the text chains with how fully they were documenting their crimes.”
  — Josh Dean ([10:35])
• “They got a fuck ton of shrimp for sale.”
  — Josh (paraphrasing the crooks’ text) ([09:33])
• “You could be sitting on a million dollars and you don’t even know.”
  — Rory ([04:27])

---

2. “Bluey Bucks” Down Under: The Australian Commemorative Coin Heist

Segment: Starts at [27:22]

• Set-Up:

  • The Royal Australia Mint announces a limited “Bluey” $1 coin (Dollar Bucks) with only 100,000 minted for a worldwide kids’ show phenomenon.
    • Josh: “To celebrate the show’s worldwide success...Royal Australia Mint plans the release of a limited edition $1 coin. And to be extra cute, they’re calling these coins dollar bucks.” ([28:16])

• Theft Details:

  • On a delivery to Brisbane, a half-ton, $63,000 load of Bluey coins (“Dollar Bucks”, worth $387,318 USD) vanishes between Canberra and Brisbane. ([29:31])
  • When the truck arrives, the coins are gone; an inside job is suspected.

• Investigation:

  • Police form “Strike Force Bandit” (named for Bluey’s dad, though, as Rory points out, “Chilli [Bluey’s mom] is the actual cop on the show!”) ([30:43])
    • Rory: “And so right there, you can tell there’s just not equality in Australia.” ([31:23])
  • Early misstep: Cops raid a collector’s home and recover a small number of coins—wrong guy, he had simply bought some from eBay. ([32:46])
  • Eventually, “the most obvious answer”: 47-year-old warehouse worker Steven John Nielsen is arrested ([33:47]), soon followed by the driver (Christina Vale) as an accomplice.
    • Josh: “It was a guy who worked in the warehouse…my guess is the coins never got into the truck at all.” ([34:22])
  • Only about 41,000 coins are recovered—20,000 remain unaccounted for and are probably in circulation. ([36:20])

Memorable Moments and Jokes

• Rory on the Australian detective’s speech (NPR-mode): “That was the NPR version of saying the exact thing with zero bias.” ([32:10])
• Rory (on Bluey strike force): “Strike Force Bandit is also just a very cool name.” ([30:47])
• Rory: "Finally, at least the criminals were able to have some job equality. Not the police force." ([35:37])

---

3. Game Time: Crypto or Pokémon?

Segment: Starts at [40:42]

• Hosted by Lane Rose:
  The gang plays a quiz game: Is it a cryptocurrency, or is it a Pokémon?
  • Example: “Solana”—Crypto.
  • “Porygon”—Pokémon.
  • Floki? (Crypto—“You might be thinking of Froakie, which is a bubble frog.”) ([43:05])
  • “This is like you just made Monopoly money real is what it feels like.” — Rory ([45:25])
  • “We live in a world where there’s a financial system where we can play this fucking game?” — Josh ([45:17])

---

Notable Quotes & Moments (with Timestamps)

• [07:13] Josh: "[Racketeering is] a type of organized crime in which the perpetrators set up a coercive, fraudulent, extortionary, or otherwise illegal...coordinated scheme or operation—a ‘racket’—to repeatedly or consistently collect a profit."
• [10:35] Josh: "They may as well have added prosecutors to the text chains with how fully they were documenting their crimes."
• [12:52] Josh: "So the answer is $750,000, which seems honestly a little bit low. Six tons is £12,000, I think."
• [13:57] Josh: "Imagine picking up thousands and thousands of dimes off the ground in a Walmart parking lot. That’s only like, $5 worth."
• [15:56] Rory: "This gentleman is laying down on a truck bed filled with dimes, and honestly, getting a pretty good core workout." (re: “Scrooge McDuck” photo)
• [19:44] Josh: "If this is the maximum amount they could handle in a single Coin Star trip, it would take them at least 236 visits to deposit all those dimes, man."
• [21:21] Josh: "In order to deposit the bags of dimes, Malik first had to open a bank account...his name, phone number, address, and a copy of his driver's license."
• [28:16] Josh: "Royal Australia Mint plans the release of a limited edition $1 coin. And to be extra cute, they're calling these coins dollar bucks."
• [30:43] Josh: "Police jumped into action, informed Strike Force Bandits."
• [31:23] Rory: "You can tell there's just not equality in Australia. They said, nope…it's better if we are named after [Bluey's dad] as opposed to the mother who does the exact job of what we're trying to do."
• [32:10] Josh reads Australian detective's speech.
• [36:20] Josh: "Cops recovered only about a thousand of them. But a few months later, they raided a storage unit in the suburbs of Sydney and found another 40,000."
• [45:17] Josh: "What are we doing here, people? That we live in a world where there’s a financial system where we can play this fucking game?"
• [45:25] Rory: "Yeah. This is like you just made Monopoly money real is what it feels like."

---

Flow, Tone, and Takeaways

• Tone: The episode is hilarious and irreverent, balancing real crime details and the absurdity of petty criminality and their attendant headaches (“It’s like finding out international currency—when you go to Canada, I just got $1,000 Canadian. I just got 400 USD dollars from Canada.” – Rory, [17:24])
• Theme: Even “successful” criminals can create unsolvable headaches for themselves by not thinking logistics through—sometimes turning a “score” into a Sisyphean task with piles of change and zero payout.
• Educational Value: Listeners come away knowing how not to launder coins, and more about racketeering and criminal group text pitfalls than they ever expected.

---

Important Timestamps

| Segment | Start Time | |-----------------------------------|------------| | Main Heist Story Intro/Setup | 02:37 | | Defining Racketeering | 07:13 | | Cargo Theft Details | 09:15 | | Mint Dime Heist Breakdown | 11:03 | | Dimes in the Parking Lot | 13:41 | | Attempts at Laundering the Dimes | 17:06 | | Arrests/Aftermath | 21:45 | | Australian Bluey Coin Heist | 27:22 | | Strike Force Bandit & Investigation| 30:43 | | Resolution & Unrecovered Coins | 36:20 | | Crypto vs. Pokémon Game | 40:42 |

---

Summary

This episode of CrimeLess is an uproarious exploration of heists where the criminals’ ‘score’ becomes a burden thanks to the weight and denomination of physical money. The co-hosts peel back the layers of both stories with humor, mockery, and a splash of actual criminology, revealing that the most inconvenient get-rich-quick schemes often have the dumbest of endings. From the “Costco of cargo theft” in Philly to the “Bluey Bucks” saga Down Under, it’s a reminder: Not all that glitters—not even dimes—is gold.

Transcript

[Narrator (Mind Games Promo)]

This is an iHeart podcast.

[Josh Dean]

Guaranteed Human.

[Rory Scovell]

This is Special Agent Riegel, Special Agent Bradley Hall.

[Special Agent Riegel]

In 2018, the FBI took down a ring of spies working for China's Ministry of State Security, one of the most mysterious intelligence agencies in the world.

[Podcast Narrator (Sixth Bureau / Burden of Guilt)]

The Sixth Bureau podcast is a story of the inner workings of the MSS and how one man's ambition and mistakes opened its vault of secrets.

[Special Agent Riegel]

Listen to the 6th Bureau on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast.

[Nancy Glass]

I'm Nancy Glass, host of the Burden of Guilt season two podcast. This is a story about a horrendous lie that destroyed two families. Late one night, Bobby Gumprite became the victim of a random crime. The perpetrator was sentenced to 99 years until a confession changed everything.

[Podcast Narrator (Sixth Bureau / Burden of Guilt)]

I was a monster.

[Nancy Glass]

Listen to Burden of guilt Season 2 on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get podcasts.

[Narrator (Mind Games Promo)]

What if mind control is real?

[Josh Dean]

If you could control the behavior of anybody around you, what kind of life would you have?

[Narrator (Mind Games Promo)]

Can you hypnotically persuade someone to buy a car?

[Rory Scovell]

When you look at your car, you're going to become overwhelmed with such good feelings.

[Narrator (Mind Games Promo)]

Can you hypnotize someone into sleeping with you?

[Rory Scovell]

I gave her some suggestions to be sexually aroused.

[Narrator (Mind Games Promo)]

Can you get someone to join your cult?

[Amanda Knox]

NLP was used on me to access my subconscious mind games.

[Narrator (Mind Games Promo)]

A new podcast, exploring nlp, AKA neuro linguistic programming. Is it a self help miracle, a shady hypnosis scam? Or both? Listen to Mind Games on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Amanda Knox]

I'm Amanda Knox and in the new podcast the Case of Lucy Letby, we unpack the story of an unimaginable tragedy that gripped the UK in 2023. But what if we didn't get the whole story?

[Josh Dean]

Evidence has been made to fit. The moment you look at the whole picture, the case collapsed.

[Amanda Knox]

What if the truth was disguised by a story we chose to believe?

[Josh Dean]

Oh my God. I think she might be inn.

[Amanda Knox]

Listen to the case of Lucy Letby on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Rory Scovell]

Do you think these criminals will do a podcast of making fun of us making mistakes on our podcast.

[Nancy Glass]

Campsite Media smart.

[Rory Scovell]

Bless media.

[Josh Dean]

Okay, Rory. Yes, tough one here.

[Rory Scovell]

Can I just tell you these do make me nervous, as though there's some right or wrong outcome here.

[Josh Dean]

You will be judged on your answers. What is the dumbest way to steal a quarter million dollars?

[Rory Scovell]

Create a crypto meme coin and get

[Josh Dean]

elected President of the United States.

[Rory Scovell]

I think become the president and then have people garner favors by buying your crypto. I don't know.

[Josh Dean]

I mean, that's either dumb or brilliant. I'm not sure you're going to understand why this week's episode is the answer to that question in just a bit. Because the criminal masterminds we're going to talk about took a very different approach. It was not ideal, and it was not their doing. So this week we've got two stories about crooks who. And this is a clue. Nickel and dimed their way to fortune, found some unwanted fame along the way. Welcome back to Crimly, the podcast that celebrates the amazing creativity of the world's dumbest criminals. I'm Josh Dean.

[Rory Scovell]

And I am Rory Scovell.

[Josh Dean]

So, Rory, when was the last time you paid for something in change?

[Rory Scovell]

I can't even. I mean, probably a parking meter.

[Josh Dean]

So you have one of those big jars of, like, nickels and quarters in your house.

[Rory Scovell]

Yes. That are. That are almost rendered completely useless by now. I don't even know what to do with them. I guess you just go to the grocery store and do the smart change thing.

[Josh Dean]

I've actually never done. I was thinking this morning, how many times in my life have I assembled one of those collections and then done absolutely nothing with it?

[Rory Scovell]

You could be sitting on a million dollars and you don't even know.

[Josh Dean]

I might get the pennies. Well, this relates to the story we're going to talk about, and it's a problem that four guys named Rakim Savage, Ronald Bird, Hanif Palmer, and Malik Palmer ran into back in 2023 when they came into possession of a lot of money. Like, physically a lot of money. Okay, so they're all in their 20s and 30s. They live in Philadelphia, the city of brotherly Love, one of many former homes of our producer Lane. Lane, I hope for your sake you were not involved in this one.

[Lane Rose]

No, but I remember where I was when this happened. I was in my house in Philly. In Philly.

[Rory Scovell]

I don't know where I was, but I bet I could also guess my house. And I bet that would be. That's got a high percentage of being correct.

[Josh Dean]

So our suspects this week considered themselves to be big deals on the streets of Philly. They were connected to some serious gangs. One of those gangs is called Omerta, which is, of course, the word for the mafia code of silence. And the title of a Mario Puzo book that wasn't the Godfather. Anybody read. You read Omerta Rory, I didn't even know it existed.

[Rory Scovell]

I thought Mario Puzzo wrote one book and then called it a day. I thought he. Harper, lead us.

[Josh Dean]

So the members of Omerta, this Philly street gang, were recently indicted by the FBI on charges of racketeering, conspiracy, murder in aid of racketeering, and conspiracy to commit counterfeiting. Do you. Do you want to take a swing at defining racketeering?

[Rory Scovell]

You know, I've never known it. I've never known what racketeering is, but all I do know is that it has nothing to do with tennis.

[Josh Dean]

It does not. It is. And I'm going to read the definition because I've also never been able to define this term.

[Rory Scovell]

But isn't it one of those words that in conversation, we all pretend like we do know it? Racketeering. They thought they could get away with it.

[Josh Dean]

Rory got himself wrapped up in a little racketeering. Your days on Earth of not knowing what racketeering means end today. So it is a type of organized crime in which the perpetrators set up a coercive, fraudulent, extortionary, or otherwise illegal. And here's the important part. Coordinated scheme or operation, a, quote, racket to repeatedly or consistently collect a profit. So the point is, basically, it's not about the specific crime. And you don't necessarily need to be take part in the specific crime. You are part of a group that has organized itself to commit crimes. So, like, maybe you're in a gang and someone in that gang robs a truck. Okay, you, I think, could be charged with racketeering for being part of a gang that commits robberies on a regular basis.

[Rory Scovell]

It feels a little RICO related kind of thing.

[Josh Dean]

I think. I think the R in RICO stands for racketeering.

[Rory Scovell]

The only reason I know RICO is because of the Dark Knight. This is no way to be educated.

[Josh Dean]

Anyway, Omerta, the other thing you gotta know about these guys is that they all text each other a lot in group chats. Do you have any group chats going?

[Rory Scovell]

I'm on some group chats. Group chats can be tough. Like, I don't want to segue here, but yeah, there's some group chats where you feel like you can't leave the chat. You know what I mean? I don't know how. If you're a Nomerta, how you leave the chat.

[Josh Dean]

I don't think you can.

[Rory Scovell]

Guys, I'm not trying to get ricoed. I gotta get out of this chat.

[Josh Dean]

Well, these guys love a group chat. And what do you think these guys are Talking about in their chat.

[Rory Scovell]

I gotta say, my guess is wildly incriminating conversations, constant evidence to put them all behind bars over and over and over again.

[Josh Dean]

You're so good at this. You have an. You have an A in answer. Answering the criminology questions of, of the ones at the top are difficult. Those are abstract. But when we get into the real nuts and bolts criminal stuff. You're so good.

[Rory Scovell]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's my bread and butter.

[Josh Dean]

So specifically, they talk about cargo theft a lot because our friends in Philly are stealing from cargo vans. And this is a big problem in Philly and beyond. Stuff has fallen off trucks all over America. And what usually happens is that drivers park their trucks overnight and try to grab some shut eye before continuing on their journey. And then at night, in swoop, the thieves with bolt cutters and a getaway vehicle ready to unload whatever's in the back of the truck. But it's often, if not usually, a total grab bag, like, secret Santa situation. Because like you see, like that's a truck. It's not like labeled on the side. It says filled with computers or cash. It's just like a truck that's parked in a parking lot. So I guess you could argue that expert criminals would figure out a plan to somehow know what's in trucks in advance, and we can assume that is

[Rory Scovell]

not the case to make it worth their time. Yeah, you're right.

[Josh Dean]

They're making it up as they go along. It's like an improv show where the prompt is truck theft. For example, after these guys boosted a truck filled with hundreds of pounds of frozen shrimp.

[Rory Scovell]

Okay.

[Josh Dean]

Ronald sent out a text blast. We don't have the exact words, so we're just speculating here. It said something like, got a fuck ton of shrimp for sale. Or when they made off with the bounty of 75 inch Samsung flat screens. Better than frozen shrimp.

[Rory Scovell]

I would argue a hundred percent.

[Josh Dean]

Another extremely discreet message went out. Who needs some big ass TVs? I.

[Rory Scovell]

Yes. I don't know how you move frozen shrimp. Quite honestly, I couldn't. Brewsters millions. A bunch of frozen shrimp.

[Josh Dean]

I mean, imagine like how excited they are to cut the bolt, the chain, and then the door opens and everyone's like, oh, man, fuck it.

[Rory Scovell]

Shrimp. Fuck.

[Josh Dean]

So this is how our crew rolls. You got the idea. They rob a truck, they hit the group chat, they announce what's currently on special, and they also text each other with updates from their heists, like, y' all got more wings. Or a picture of thousands of pounds of Frozen crab legs, man. They may as well have added prosecutors to the text chains with how fully they were documenting their crimes.

[Rory Scovell]

Or a journalist. Add a journalist to it.

[Josh Dean]

Jeffrey Goldberg, also in the chat. Yeah, it's one thing to participate in some gang activity like drug deals, hits, maybe some money laundering, but these guys are like the Costco of cargo theft. Yes, but they appear to have no business plan, no idea what their next haul will be. All they know is it's going to be in bulk. Which brings us to the heist we're really here to talk about in April of 2023.

[Rory Scovell]

Here we go.

[Josh Dean]

So let me paint a picture for you. Oh, shit. One evening, an 18 wheeler pulls into a Walmart parking lot in northeast Philly. Driver's tired. He's got a long drive to Miami ahead to deliver the cargo he picked up earlier that day in Center City Philly. This is a pretty common nightly ritual on long haul journeys. You find a big parking lot, catch some shut eye in your cabin. But this driver lived in Philly, so he locked up his truck and went home to sleep. Much more comfortable than sleeping in your cab, I think we can all agree Y but the load he was hauling was from the US Mint, which has a branch in Philly. So, yeah, sure, leave that cargo unattended in a Walmart parking lot. Nothing bad ever happens there.

[Rory Scovell]

I can't. That's insane that they. No one cared to be like, hey, it's probably best if you just hit the road straight away as opposed to pick up. As as opposed to picking up stuff from the Mint and then driving 10 minutes to a parking lot to go to bed. Maybe, maybe try to get 100 miles

[Josh Dean]

in or leave it at the mint and just pick it up in the morning.

[Rory Scovell]

Yes, yes, yes.

[Josh Dean]

He's like, oh, I'm tired from that drive from the Mint to Walmart.

[Rory Scovell]

Oh, I can't believe that Mint is one mile away from where I decided to finally park and rest for the night.

[Josh Dean]

So under the COVID of night, our crew pulls up in two vehicles. A white box truck and a pickup. Six dudes dressed up in dark hoodies hop out with bolt cutters and snip the cargo truck open. What they see is so much better than stinky crab legs or a fuck ton of shrimp. They see dimes, pallets and pallets of 10 cent coins. 6 tons of tiny silver Harry Truman dimes. How much money do you think 6 tons of dimes is?

[Rory Scovell]

I mean, did you say it at the beginning? Because I want to guess a quarter million, but Maybe it's way more.

[Josh Dean]

So the answer is $750,000, which seems honestly a little bit low. Six tons is £12,000, I think.

[Rory Scovell]

You know, it's like when you find a $20 bill on the ground and it's wet,

[Josh Dean]

you're like, I'm happy.

[Rory Scovell]

But also, why is it wet?

[Josh Dean]

So these guys first try to lift the pallets out, but they're way too heavy, obviously. So then they split open the containers and start separating them smaller bags. They do not take all the dimes, not because they're being modest, but because they are spilling dimes all over the place. Yeah, it is raining dimes in the Walmart parking lot.

[Rory Scovell]

Rory.

[Josh Dean]

Also, I'm just gonna say, have you ever tried to pick a dime up off the ground?

[Rory Scovell]

I know.

[Josh Dean]

They're so skinny.

[Rory Scovell]

It's like. Like a loose leaf piece of paper that you're trying to grab, except you can't lick your finger and grab the dimension.

[Josh Dean]

So imagine picking up thousands and thousands of dimes off of the ground in a Walmart parking lot. Yeah, you're, like, stressed. You're excited, like, panicking. You're like, oh, my God, that's only like, $5 worth.

[Rory Scovell]

I'm also getting a lot of tiny rocks in my bag as well.

[Josh Dean]

So you can imagine they're gonna leave some stuff behind because at some point, they're just like, we can't pick up any more. Like, one by one. This is taking too long.

[Rory Scovell]

Yeah.

[Josh Dean]

So anyway, as they peeled away that night, they also stopped to steal some residential recycling bins, probably to help tote dimes around. And then the next morning, sun comes up. The driver, fully rested, returns to his truck. He finds it busted open and just a terrible mess of dimes. Dimes everywhere.

[Rory Scovell]

Yeah.

[Josh Dean]

He calls the cops. Do we have a clip of this, Lane?

[Nancy Glass]

Thousands of dimes scattered and shimmering in

[Amanda Knox]

a parking lot of Philadelphia Mills Mall.

[Rory Scovell]

They were trying to cross. Cross load the dimes into other things to carry it away. There's dimes all over the parking lot. Good thing that guy has a classic Philly accident.

[Amanda Knox]

Have been an ongoing issue with all kinds of goods stolen.

[Rory Scovell]

We've had lamb, chicken, TVs, refrigerators, et cetera, taken.

[Josh Dean]

I love that cop. Loves an et cetera, too. Everything had an. Every sentence had an et cetera on the end.

[Rory Scovell]

Yeah. Anyways, they did crime, et cetera. These guys were doing stuff that you can't even imagine with refrigerators and stuff, et cetera.

[Josh Dean]

So, yeah, what we just saw, because this is a podcast, people won't it was like sparkling, glittering piles of dimes in a parking lot and cops acting like the cops on the Simpsons. That's kind of the accent of the cop on the Simpsons, too.

[Rory Scovell]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Josh Dean]

So as the Philly police start their investigation, the thieves are celebrating in the group chats. They're sharing screenshots of the news articles. They're taking fun pictures. Like this one of Malik swimming in a truck bed full of dimes. Are we able to show Rory this?

[Lane Rose]

I have it. I have it.

[Rory Scovell]

God, I hope it looks just like Scrooge McDuck. And it does.

[Lane Rose]

I'm so happy.

[Josh Dean]

What are you seeing here, Rory? Describe it for the people at home.

[Rory Scovell]

This gentleman is laying down on a truck bed filled with. Filled with dimes and honestly, getting a pretty good core workout. He doesn't seem to be fully relaxing into the time.

[Josh Dean]

It's like a reverse plank. He looks like he's like.

[Rory Scovell]

It does look like a reverse plank, but he is. He is pretty happy about these dimes.

[Josh Dean]

They also plan a. A trip to a casino for a, quote, victory dinner. But before they make any reservations, they need to figure out the logistics of actually spending this money. They got to figure out first how much they actually stole.

[Rory Scovell]

Yeah.

[Josh Dean]

So the next day, one of them sends around a link to an online money weight calculator. So they're going to weigh it because they're not counting those down. Can you imagine if they made, like, the interns and gangs?

[Rory Scovell]

They would still be doing that right now.

[Josh Dean]

Yeah. Okay, kid, you're new. Yeah. Start counting.

[Rory Scovell]

All right. We've been counting for two years. We're up to $11.20.

[Josh Dean]

So later, it would be calculated that they made off with approximately 2,344,740 dimes, which totals 234,474. So that's why, at the top of the show, I said the dumbest way to steal a quarter million dollars. There was three quarters of a million in the truck. They got a third of that.

[Rory Scovell]

Doesn't that just like when you hear the number of dimes and then the value of the dimes is just like finding out international currency. Like when you go to Canada, I just got $1,000 Canadian. I just got 400 USD dollars from Canada.

[Josh Dean]

So if you were them. So if you had 2 million dimes.

[Rory Scovell]

Yeah.

[Josh Dean]

How would you get rid of them? How would you launder that money?

[Rory Scovell]

I've been racking my brain since this started. If I'm in that position and I got to assume the. I don't know how it works, but doesn't it seem like Coin Star is not a bad route? And I'm throwing that out there because this is 2023. Coinstar is available.

[Josh Dean]

Once again, you've inhabited the mind of a criminal genius, so you're exactly right. So these guys are not idiots. They decide they're not going to go and make a bunch of big purchases with buckets of dimes, because that would look too obvious.

[Rory Scovell]

And also, like, fur coats. It's like very weird purchases. Very good, fellas.

[Josh Dean]

They got to find a way to convert the dimes into bills. So they begin making small trips to Coin Stars.

[Rory Scovell]

Okay, here we go.

[Josh Dean]

So, according to court documents, the highest amount they ever got from a single coin star was $990.44, minus processing fees, which tells me that probably the limit is a thousand bucks, right? So I guess on one trip, it'll only give you a thousand bucks.

[Rory Scovell]

I got to say, I think even that's a red flag. I don't think I would go. It's a pain in the ass, but I wouldn't go more than 200.

[Josh Dean]

I think you're right. If someone multiple times gets $1,000 out, then maybe we should check up.

[Rory Scovell]

I mean, that is just such a significant amount.

[Josh Dean]

It's also 9904 dimes. So I suspect the machine tells you what the breakdown is. So if I'm a cop, I'm probably saying to Coinstar, hey, by the way, if anybody shows up with a lot of dimes, could you let me know?

[Rory Scovell]

Actually, you're right. The cops, their first thought is gonna be, all right, where are all the Coin stars?

[Josh Dean]

What a stakeout that is. That guy from the clip with his donut.

[Rory Scovell]

So we went to all the Coin stars. We started at the Coin Stars, and we just said, you know, et cetera, go to the Coin Stars and et cetera, try to see who's using dimes, et cetera.

[Josh Dean]

So 9904 dimes and 4 pennies. I crunched the numbers, and if this is the maximum amount they could handle in a single Coin Star trip, it would take them at least 236 visits to deposit all those dimes, man. So maybe they did the math, too, because at some point, they start to deposit them into an actual bank, too. Or at least one guy does. Malik, he gets the job of the very tedious process of making inconspicuous deposits around suburban Philly at real banks. So, fourteen hundred dollars worth of dimes here, fifteen hundred there. He Makes about four of these at different locations of the same bank. And in case you're wondering, $1,400 in dimes is about 70 pounds. Okay, so think large dog. Nine year old boy.

[Rory Scovell]

Yeah, very specific age for a boy, but. Okay, got it, got it.

[Josh Dean]

We weighed every child to make sure this has been rigorously.

[Rory Scovell]

And, son, how old are you? Nine. Okay, good. Now we know all nine year olds weigh 70 pounds.

[Josh Dean]

So basically, they're trying to be smart. I think so. They're like, we can't just do Coinstar, guys. We also got to go to banks. But everything that they do looks conspicuous as hell. It's only a matter of time till they get caught. Yeah, but they got to enjoy the summer so they don't get caught right away. They're having a great summer. Imagining them cooling off in a pool of dime frozen shrimp. Yes. It's not until October 20, 2023, that the cops come calling.

[Rory Scovell]

Oh, just before Halloween, when they were all gonna dress up as dimes.

[Josh Dean]

If you're wondering what specific mistake got them caught. Well, honestly, take your pick. The many texts to the group chat bragging about the heist.

[Rory Scovell]

Yeah.

[Josh Dean]

The incriminating photos of the surveillance videos. The very large bags of shiny dimes that they delivered to bags and coin stars. Or maybe it was the fact that in order to deposit the bags of dimes, Malik first had to open a bank account. And in order to do that, he supplied his name, phone number, address, and a copy of his driver's license. Yeah, I got to imagine the cops had told all the local banks, like, if anybody shows up with a lot of dimes, could you let us know?

[Rory Scovell]

And they were like, yeah, you got it. I can't imagine anybody making that mistake. But, oh, someone's walking in right now. Let's see what he's got. Oh, he's got one of those bags with a dollar sign with the money sign on the outside, like those canvas bags. Car, Cartoon bag.

[Josh Dean]

Malik. So, October 20, 2023, Rakim, Ronald, and Malik. So three of the four we heard at the top were arrested by Philly cops. Unclear when the fourth member, Hanif, was taken into custody, but they all face charges that include conspiracy, robbery, and theft of government money. And they're facing very serious jail time. But it's going to be a while before we learn their actual fates, because two years later, or a year and a half later, April 15th of this year, the government actually argued that the case was so unusual and complicated that they needed more time and resources. It was labeled a Quote, complex case designation.

[Rory Scovell]

Huh?

[Josh Dean]

Which maybe because they had to count all the dimes, they just stuffed them all back into those little tubes of, you know. Did you see that when you were a kid?

[Rory Scovell]

Isn't that the worst?

[Josh Dean]

That's terrible.

[Rory Scovell]

I remember that as a kid. It's just like.

[Josh Dean]

And they would, like, go sideways in the.

[Rory Scovell]

Yes. And then you, like, had to kind of start over or, like, kind of pour them back and then back again.

[Josh Dean]

After the break, we go down under for another story about stolen change.

[Special Agent Riegel]

China's Ministry of State Security is one of the most mysterious and powerful spy agencies in the world. But in 2017, the FBI got inside.

[Rory Scovell]

This is Special Agent Riegel, Special Agent Bradley Hall.

[Podcast Narrator (Sixth Bureau / Burden of Guilt)]

This MSS officer has no idea the US Government is onto him. But the FBI has his chats, texts, emails, even his personal diary. Hear how they got it on the Sixth Bureau podcast.

[Josh Dean]

I now have several terabytes of an MSS officer, no doubt, no question of his life. And that's a unicorn.

[Rory Scovell]

No one had ever seen anything like that. It was unbelievable.

[Special Agent Riegel]

This is a story of the inner workings of the MSS and how one man's ambition and mistakes opened its vault of secrets.

[Podcast Narrator (Sixth Bureau / Burden of Guilt)]

Listen to the 6th Bureau on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Amanda Knox]

In 2023, a story gripped the UK, evoking horror and disbelief.

[Rory Scovell]

The nurse who should have been in charge of caring for tiny babies is now the most prolific child killer in modern British history.

[Amanda Knox]

Everyone thought they knew how it ended. A verdict, a villain, a nurse named Lucy Letby.

[Josh Dean]

Lucy Letby has been found guilty.

[Amanda Knox]

But what if we didn't get the whole story?

[Josh Dean]

The moment you look at the whole picture, the case collapses.

[Amanda Knox]

I'm Amanda Knox, and in the new podcast podcast Doubt the Case of Lucy Letby, we follow the evidence and hear from the people that lived it to ask what really happened when the world decided who Lucy Letby was.

[Josh Dean]

No voicing of any skepticism or doubt.

[Rory Scovell]

It'll cause so much harm at every

[Special Agent Riegel]

single level of the British establishment of this is wrong.

[Amanda Knox]

Listen to Doubt the Case of Lucy Letby on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Nancy Glass]

I'm Nancy Glass, host of the Burden of Guilt season two podcast. This is a story about a horrendous lie that destroyed two families. Late one night, Bobby Gumprite became the victim of a random crime.

[Josh Dean]

He pulls the gun, tells me to

[Rory Scovell]

lie down on the ground.

[Nancy Glass]

He identified Jermaine Hudson as the perpetrator. Jermaine was sentenced to 99 years.

[Josh Dean]

I'm like, lord, this can't be real.

[Rory Scovell]

I thought it was a mistaken identity.

[Josh Dean]

The best lie is partial truth.

[Nancy Glass]

For 22 years, only two people knew the truth. Until a confession changed everything.

[Podcast Narrator (Sixth Bureau / Burden of Guilt)]

I was a monster.

[Nancy Glass]

Listen to Burden of Guilt, Season 2 on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Narrator (Mind Games Promo alternate)]

What if mind control is real?

[Josh Dean]

If you could control the behavior of anybody around you, what kind of life would you have?

[Narrator (Mind Games Promo alternate)]

Can you hypnotically persuade someone to buy a car?

[Rory Scovell]

When you look at your car, you're gonna become overwhelmed with such good feelings.

[Narrator (Mind Games Promo alternate)]

Can you hypnotize someone into sleeping with you?

[Special Agent Riegel]

I gave her some suggestions to be sexually aroused.

[Narrator (Mind Games Promo alternate)]

Can you get someone to join your cult?

[Amanda Knox]

NLP was used on me to access my subconscious.

[Narrator (Mind Games Promo alternate)]

Nlp, AKA Neuro Linguistic Programming, is a blend of hypnosis, linguistics, and psychology. Fans say it's like finally getting a user manual for your brain.

[Rory Scovell]

It's about engineering consciousness.

[Narrator (Mind Games Promo alternate)]

Mind Games is the story of nlp. It's crazy cast of disciples and the fake doctor who invented it at a New age commune and sold it to guys in suits. He stood trial for murder and got acquitted. The biggest mind game of all, NLP might actually work.

[Lane Rose]

This is wild.

[Narrator (Mind Games Promo alternate)]

Listen to Mind Games on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Josh Dean]

Okay, Rory, I've got one more story about a coin heist for you, but this one's gonna be a bit of a pivot.

[Rory Scovell]

Okay, cool.

[Josh Dean]

So does your daughter watch Bluey?

[Rory Scovell]

Oh, yeah. I mean, a little past it now, but we've watched a lot of Bluey.

[Josh Dean]

All right, so my kids just missed it. They'd aged out before it became popular. Can you elevator pitch it to me?

[Rory Scovell]

Bluey is animated dog family living in Australia. It's just like, quick little episodes that have great lessons on, you know, the tenants of growing up. But what's funny about that show is that the parents are so. Yes. And playfully supportive with their children. There's no way to walk away from it feeling you're not like a shitty dad.

[Josh Dean]

So Bluey has made you feel bad about your.

[Rory Scovell]

Bluey makes kids so happy, and parents be like, why can't I be better?

[Josh Dean]

Well, I knew it was a hit. I didn't know it was this big of a hit. So it's an international sensation now broadcast to more than 60 countries in the US alone. Disney reported it was streamed 55.6 billion minutes in 2024.

[Rory Scovell]

It's a hit.

[Josh Dean]

In September of 2024, to celebrate the show's worldwide success, the Royal Australia Mint plans the release of a limited edition $1 coin. And to be extra cute, they're calling these coins dollar bucks, which you might know. I guess that's the name of the currency in the bcu, the Bluey cinematic universe. Okay, yeah, Dollar bucks. Okay. So the coins are made out of gold. They depict Bluey and the healer family. And on the opposite side of the coin is King Charles, not the spaniel.

[Rory Scovell]

Natural. Natural. You know, collaboration right there.

[Josh Dean]

Fewer than 100,000 are minted, scheduled to go into circulation. Then about two months before their planned release on June 23, 2024, 63,000 of these coins were loaded onto a truck. Stop me if you've heard this before.

[Rory Scovell]

And I didn't even know Australia had Walmarts.

[Josh Dean]

So the pallet weighs a half ton. So we got £1,000 of dollar bucks.

[Rory Scovell]

Yeah.

[Josh Dean]

Scheduled to make the 12 hour journey from the National Mint in Canberra to Brisbane, which is Bluey's hometown, which you obviously knew.

[Rory Scovell]

I knew that, yeah.

[Josh Dean]

And the truck does indeed make the journey. So in this case, the driver doesn't pick them up, drive five minutes, go to sleep.

[Rory Scovell]

The driver doesn't pull into his driveway and just go to bed. Yeah.

[Josh Dean]

But when the Australian Mint officials go to unload the precious cargo, they find the truck's cargo hold empty. The coins were not there.

[Rory Scovell]

See, this is a little more fun. This is a little more David Copperfield.

[Josh Dean]

Where are the Bluey bucks? Dollar box.

[Rory Scovell]

Where are the Bluey bucks?

[Josh Dean]

So someone had stolen $63,000 bucks worth more than 600,000 Australian dollars. I don't know how many US dollars.

[Rory Scovell]

Yeah, this is already more exciting. Even the amount is wildly higher.

[Josh Dean]

Unless three times. Unless. Actually 600,000 Australian is like $75.

[Rory Scovell]

Oh, that's actually a good point.

[Lane Rose]

Right now, it's $387,318.

[Josh Dean]

Okay, okay, that's some real weight. But actually, these coins are even more valuable because they're limited edition runs. So collectors are going to pay a lot for them. Bluey heads are going to just go mad for these. They expected them to sell for 10 times their face value. And the cops jumped into action, informed Strike Force Bandits.

[Rory Scovell]

Yeah, that's the name of the dad.

[Josh Dean]

Yes. Good work.

[Rory Scovell]

Strike Force Bandit is also just a very cool name.

[Josh Dean]

Super cool. The cops were probably volunteering like crazy to be on the Strike Force Bandit. Also, how cool would your kids think it is if you're like, I'm going to get the guys that stole the dollar box.

[Rory Scovell]

And they're like, yeah, my dad's a hero.

[Josh Dean]

So real Bluey Stans might point out that Chilli Bluey's mom would have made more sense, though. Rory, do you know why that is?

[Rory Scovell]

Strike Force Chile.

[Josh Dean]

Yeah. Why would she be a better. Maybe have been a better choice.

[Rory Scovell]

Oh, wait. I mean, I don't remember what her job is on the show.

[Josh Dean]

She's a cop.

[Rory Scovell]

Okay.

[Josh Dean]

She's airport security. She's a sniffer dog.

[Rory Scovell]

Yeah. And so right there, you can tell there's just not equality in Australia. They said, nope. Even though the dad is somewhat unemployed, it's better if we are named after him as opposed to the mother who does the exact job of what we're trying to do.

[Josh Dean]

Literally sniffer, like, sniffs out.

[Rory Scovell]

Literally solves crimes.

[Josh Dean]

When I read you this quote from the dynamic detective superintendent in charge of the case, maybe you'll understand why we landed on the wrong choice. Okay. Because here's what he had to say to the media. The theft of these coins have deprived a lot of young children and members of the community from having access to these coins. So we're doing our absolute best to try and recover these coins and put them back into circulation.

[Rory Scovell]

That was the NPR version of saying the exact thing with zero bias.

[Josh Dean]

Not exactly the speech from Hoosiers.

[Rory Scovell]

Zero emotion, just point blank.

[Josh Dean]

But if we can hear it in the Philly voice.

[Rory Scovell]

So what we're trying to do is get these coins. I'm trying to add a little Australia these coins in, if we could, you know, et cetera. And, you know, bluey is such a fun. Such a fun time.

[Josh Dean]

So two weeks after the dollar bucks go missing, Strike Force Bandit raids a Sydney property and finds 189 of them. Oh, not a lot.

[Rory Scovell]

How did they land on this property?

[Josh Dean]

Well, sadly, it turned out to be the wrong guy. Oh, this is a coin collector who bought those for a buck 50 each.

[Lane Rose]

Okay.

[Josh Dean]

You can imagine, like, SWAT team, machine guns, and it's just some, like, weird adult who collects children's coins.

[Rory Scovell]

He's like, in this room, I've got my Hamburglar coins. Now, I know that seems relevant to crime, but it's just a character.

[Josh Dean]

The sad part for that is they seize the coins because they're stolen, and then he's not repaid in any way.

[Rory Scovell]

That's not cool at all.

[Josh Dean]

Not cool at all. So anyway, the crack members of Strike Force Bandit continue their search. A few days later, they had their bingo moment. As one police officer put it, I think that's another Bluey reference. Yep.

[Rory Scovell]

Bingo is the other kid. Bluey and Bingo are siblings.

[Josh Dean]

Gotcha. So the case really Cracks open on August 7, 2024 when Aussie Police arrest 47 year old Steven John Nielsen. And I'm going to give you a chance to guess where, how and where they cracked this crime. Like, what do you think Nielsen's story is? I'll give you a clue. It's the most obvious answer. If I asked you, who do you think stole the coins that never made it to the other end of the route?

[Rory Scovell]

Oh, so the driver just closed.

[Josh Dean]

It was a guy who worked in the warehouse. But so basically inside job, but the

[Rory Scovell]

driver was in on it.

[Josh Dean]

That's unclear. Nielsen worked in the warehouse where the coins were being stored. So my guess is the coins, they just never got into the truck at all. So he had an accomplice, they're saying. They suggest that he and an accomplice actually removed the coins before the truck left. So the driver may have just been completely oblivious because I don't know that he opens and looks at the cargo. Maybe that should be a step they put into the.

[Rory Scovell]

Yep, maybe. Maybe the old double check should be

[Josh Dean]

part of the job going forward. All, all dollar buck loads will be double checked. So. And then also this guy immediately put the coins up for sale on ebay.

[Rory Scovell]

Oh, he went too quick. He was impatient.

[Josh Dean]

He did.

[Rory Scovell]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Josh Dean]

And so there's a news clip of his arrest and the Australian police go whole swat. Like this guy is some super villain.

[Rory Scovell]

Yeah.

[Josh Dean]

Instead of just a dude at a warehouse who stole a bunch of kids collective coins. Yeah.

[Rory Scovell]

Instead of just being the guy they should have clearly interviewed first.

[Josh Dean]

But I have one more detail that you were righter than, than you thought. Oh, because they later charged the driver too. Yes, a 27 year old woman named Christina Vale, who actually moved the boosted coins.

[Rory Scovell]

Christina, what were you thinking?

[Josh Dean]

But female getaway driver, so that's cool.

[Rory Scovell]

You know, finally, at least the criminals were able to be, you know, have some job equality.

[Josh Dean]

Right, Exactly.

[Rory Scovell]

Not the police force.

[Josh Dean]

So all three of them, they're facing charges, not yet been convicted, facing charges of breaking and entering, which could land them in jail up to a decade. And what about those beautiful bluey coins? Yeah. Cops recovered only about a thousand of them. But a few months later, they raided a storage unit in the suburbs of Sydney and found another 40,000 still wrapped in the official Royal Australian Mint packaging. Yes, but that still leaves 20,000 coins unaccounted for. Police believe they're already in circulation Yep. So, to our Aussie fans. Go get em, crimeless nation.

[Rory Scovell]

Yeah, we just gave you all the clues. Now it's up to you, Bluey's Clues.

[Amanda Knox]

In 2023, a story gripped the UK, evoking horror and disbelief.

[Rory Scovell]

The nurse who should have been in charge of caring for tiny babies is now the most prolific child killer in modern British history.

[Amanda Knox]

Everyone thought they knew how it ended. A verdict. A villain, a nurse named Lucy Letby.

[Josh Dean]

Lucy Letby has been found guilty.

[Amanda Knox]

But what if we didn't get the whole story?

[Josh Dean]

The moment you look at the whole picture, the case collapses.

[Amanda Knox]

I'm Amanda Knox, and in the new podcast, the Case of Lucy Letby, we follow the evidence and hear from the people that lived it. To ask what really happened when the world decided who Lucy Letby was.

[Josh Dean]

No voicing of any skepticism or doubt.

[Rory Scovell]

It'll cause so much harm at every

[Special Agent Riegel]

single level of the British establishment of this is wrong.

[Amanda Knox]

Listen to Doubt the Case of Lucy Letby on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Special Agent Riegel]

China's Ministry of State Security is one of the most mysterious and powerful spy agencies in the world. But in 2017, the FBI got inside.

[Rory Scovell]

This is Special Agent Riegel, Special Agent Bradley Hall.

[Podcast Narrator (Sixth Bureau / Burden of Guilt)]

This MSS officer has no idea the US Government is onto him. But the FBI has his chats, texts, emails, even his personal diary. Hear how they got it on the Sixth Bureau podcast.

[Josh Dean]

I now have several terabytes of an

[Rory Scovell]

MSS officer, no doubt, no question of

[Josh Dean]

his life, and that's a unicorn.

[Rory Scovell]

No one had ever seen anything like that. It was unbelievable.

[Special Agent Riegel]

This is a story of the inner workings of the MSS and how one man's ambition and mistakes opened its vault of secrets.

[Podcast Narrator (Sixth Bureau / Burden of Guilt)]

Listen to the 6th Bureau on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Nancy Glass]

I'm Nancy Glass, host of the Burden of Guilt season two podcast. This is a story about a horrendous lie that destroyed two families. Late one night, Bobby Gumprite became the victim of a random crime.

[Rory Scovell]

He pulls the gun, tells me to lie down on the ground.

[Nancy Glass]

He identified Jermaine Hudson as the perpetrator. Jermaine was sentenced to 99 years.

[Josh Dean]

I'm like, lord, this can't be real.

[Rory Scovell]

I thought it was a mistaken identity.

[Josh Dean]

The best lie is partial truth.

[Nancy Glass]

For 22 years, only two people knew the truth. Until a confession changed everything.

[Podcast Narrator (Sixth Bureau / Burden of Guilt)]

I was a monster.

[Nancy Glass]

Listen to Burden of guilt season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Narrator (Mind Games Promo alternate)]

What if mind control is real?

[Josh Dean]

If you could control the behavior of anybody around you, what kind of life would you have?

[Narrator (Mind Games Promo alternate)]

Can you hypnotically persuade someone to buy a car?

[Rory Scovell]

When you look at your car, you're going to become overwhelmed with such good feelings.

[Narrator (Mind Games Promo alternate)]

Can you hypnotize someone into sleeping with you?

[Special Agent Riegel]

I gave her some suggestions to be sexually aroused.

[Narrator (Mind Games Promo alternate)]

Can you get someone to join your cult?

[Amanda Knox]

And I'll. NLP was used on me to access my subconscious.

[Narrator (Mind Games Promo alternate)]

Nlp, AKA Neuro Linguistic Programming, is a blend of hypnosis, linguistics, and psychology. Fans say it's like finally getting a user manual for your brain.

[Rory Scovell]

It's about engineering consciousness.

[Narrator (Mind Games Promo alternate)]

Mind Games is the story of nlp, its crazy cast of disciples, and the fake doctor who invented it at a new age commune and sold it to guys in soup. He stood trial for murder and got acquitted. The biggest mind game of all, nlp, might actually work.

[Lane Rose]

This is wild.

[Narrator (Mind Games Promo alternate)]

Listen to Mind Games on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Josh Dean]

Welcome back to Cryingless. For our final segment, as always, Lane has a game for us featuring another kids show and another form of currency. What is going on here, Lane?

[Rory Scovell]

Welcome back to Lanes Games.

[Lane Rose]

Lanes games.

[Rory Scovell]

Lanes Games.

[Lane Rose]

So There are over 10,000 cryptocurrencies in the market, and there are over 1,000 Pokemon species. Do you guys have any experience with either of those things?

[Rory Scovell]

Zero. Completely.

[Lane Rose]

Great.

[Josh Dean]

Same here.

[Lane Rose]

Cool. So the premise of this game is simple. You have to tell me, is it a cryptocurrency or is it a Pokemon?

[Josh Dean]

Okay, I like that we're even playing field here. We got. Neither of us has any knowledge at all of either.

[Rory Scovell]

Also, just the fact that this can even be a quiz game means cryptocurrency has failed us.

[Lane Rose]

So, to be fair, I only pulled from the top 1,000 or so cryptocurrencies, and then I only chose the first generation of Pokemon. So you guys don't have any of those weird new ones.

[Rory Scovell]

I was going to ask, what are our boundaries? Okay, got it.

[Lane Rose]

Yeah, yeah.

[Josh Dean]

All right.

[Podcast Narrator (Sixth Bureau / Burden of Guilt)]

All right, let's go.

[Lane Rose]

So first one, Solana.

[Josh Dean]

Crypto.

[Rory Scovell]

Pokemon.

[Lane Rose]

It's Crypto. All right.

[Rory Scovell]

Porygon Pokemon.

[Josh Dean]

I'm going Pokemon there, too.

[Lane Rose]

It's a Pokemon. That's a normal Pokemon. It was actually the first artificial Pokemon created by scientists, according to Pokemon lore.

[Josh Dean]

Oh, okay, just a second. Aren't all Pokemons artificial?

[Lane Rose]

No, no, no. They're real in the universe of Pokemon.

[Rory Scovell]

Come on, Josh, get it together.

[Lane Rose]

Hedera Crypto or Pokemon Pokemon crypto. It's crypto. Josh, you might have been thinking of the canine Pokemon herdier.

[Rory Scovell]

So I bet that's what he. I honestly. I bet that's the mistake he made.

[Josh Dean]

Yeah, I mix them up all the time.

[Rory Scovell]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Podcast Narrator (Sixth Bureau / Burden of Guilt)]

Okay.

[Lane Rose]

Jolteon.

[Rory Scovell]

Crypto.

[Josh Dean]

Also crypto.

[Lane Rose]

Now, that's an electric type Pokemon. One of the final forms of Eevee. Duh.

[Josh Dean]

Oh, I didn't know we were doing electric Pokemons.

[Rory Scovell]

Also, I thought. I thought we were. I thought there were boundaries. Okay, okay. Now that I know that, do you

[Lane Rose]

guys not understand that there are different types of Pokemons? Pokemon men?

[Josh Dean]

I mean, I do. I don't know if Laura does.

[Lane Rose]

Okay, what about Floki?

[Josh Dean]

Is it my turn? That's got to be a Pokemon.

[Rory Scovell]

That's Pokemon.

[Lane Rose]

That's a crypto. You might be thinking of Froakie, which is a bubble frog.

[Rory Scovell]

Water type Pokemon, which we were.

[Josh Dean]

We. Absolutely.

[Rory Scovell]

100 primeapem.

[Josh Dean]

I'm going crypto there.

[Lane Rose]

It's Pokemon. It's a fighting type Pokemon. Kind of like a monkey guy.

[Rory Scovell]

Yeah.

[Lane Rose]

Poly mesh crypto.

[Josh Dean]

Yeah, I think it's crypto.

[Lane Rose]

That's crypto. If you got it wrong, I wouldn't blame you because there is a Poliwag, which is a water Pokemon. Kind of a tadpole creature.

[Rory Scovell]

It just makes me uncomfortable that there's even a proxy a close proximity with these two categories.

[Lane Rose]

It just really worked. There's a lot of synergy here. How about Gold Duck?

[Josh Dean]

Gotta be Pokemon.

[Rory Scovell]

I'm gonna go crypto. I think it's a curveball.

[Lane Rose]

It's Pokemon.

[Rory Scovell]

Not a curveball at all.

[Lane Rose]

It's a water Pokemon. Evolves from Psyduck.

[Rory Scovell]

Yep.

[Josh Dean]

That's. Yeah, I knew that.

[Lane Rose]

Yeah, you knew that one. Radix.

[Rory Scovell]

Radix. All right, I'm gonna go crypto.

[Josh Dean]

It's a surprisingly hard game. I'm gonna go crypto also.

[Lane Rose]

It is a crypto.

[Rory Scovell]

Yeah, yeah, it's a crypto.

[Lane Rose]

You could have been thinking if you were second guessing it. Onyx, which is a ground rock. Pokemon. Big snake guy. Okay, what about pangolin?

[Rory Scovell]

Pokemon.

[Josh Dean]

Yeah, Pokemon.

[Lane Rose]

That is a crypto.

[Rory Scovell]

No, it's not, Lane.

[Lane Rose]

A pangolin is a real life animal that Sandshrew and Sandslash were based on.

[Josh Dean]

I don't know what those words mean.

[Lane Rose]

Yeah, it's okay. It's okay.

[Rory Scovell]

I don't know that any listener does either.

[Lane Rose]

Okay, two more. Mr. Mime.

[Josh Dean]

That's gotta be a Pokemon crypto.

[Lane Rose]

It's Pokemon.

[Podcast Narrator (Sixth Bureau / Burden of Guilt)]

Fairy.

[Lane Rose]

Psychic type Pokemon. Final one. Pikaboss.

[Josh Dean]

Oh, boy. This is gonna be a trick question, I think. Rory.

[Rory Scovell]

Pokemon.

[Josh Dean]

It's a crypto, but it sounds like a Pokemon.

[Lane Rose]

It is a crypto based on a Pokemon.

[Rory Scovell]

Yes, it's a crypto based on Pokemon.

[Josh Dean]

What are we doing here, people? That we live in a world where there's a financial system where we can play this fucking game?

[Rory Scovell]

Yeah. This is like you just made Monopoly money real is what it feels like.

[Josh Dean]

And the final one was, no, it's a crypto based on a Pokemon.

[Rory Scovell]

The collab everyone was hoping for. Bluey bucks.

[Josh Dean]

And on that sad note, we'll see you next week.

[Rory Scovell]

America by.

[Josh Dean]

Crimeless is a production of Smartless Media, Campside Media and big money players in partnership with iHeart podcasts. It's hosted by Rory Scoville and me, Josh Dean. Our senior producer is Lane Rose. Emma Siminoff is our associate producer. This episode was written by Lane Rose and me, Josh Dean were sound, designed and engineered by Blake Brook with support from Ewan Leitramuin. Mark McAdam composed our theme song. The executive producers at Campside Media are Vanessa Gregoriadas, Matt Sher and me, Josh Dean. The executive producers for iHeart podcasts and Big Money Players are Jack O', Brien, Lindsey Hoffman and Matt Apodaca. For Smartless Media, the executive producers are Will Arnett, Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes and Richard Corson. Bernie Kaminski is head of production. The associate producer is Matty McCann. A special thanks to our operations team, Ashley Warren and Sabina Mara. Do you have a question, comment or confession for the Crimless team? Email [e-mail] and if you enjoyed Crimeless, please rate and review the show wherever you get your podcasts. It helps people find the show and also makes us feel validated. Unless you're mean, in which case keep it to yourself. We'll see you next week. Crimeless Nation.

[Rory Scovell]

This is Special Agent Regal, Special Agent Bradley Hall.

[Special Agent Riegel]

In 2018, the FBI took down a ring of spies working for China's Ministry of State Security, one of the most mysterious intelligence agencies in the world.

[Podcast Narrator (Sixth Bureau / Burden of Guilt)]

The Sixth Bureau podcast is a story of the inner workings of the MSS and how one man's ambition and mistakes opened its vault of secrets.

[Special Agent Riegel]

Listen to the 6th Bureau on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Nancy Glass]

I'm Nancy Glass, host of the Burden of Guilt season two podcast. This is a story about a horrendous lie that destroyed two families. Late one night, Bobby Gumprite became the victim of a random crime. The perpetrator was sentenced to 99 years until a confession changed everything.

[Podcast Narrator (Sixth Bureau / Burden of Guilt)]

I was a monster.

[Nancy Glass]

Listen to Burden of guilt Season 2 on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Narrator (Mind Games Promo)]

What if mind control is real?

[Josh Dean]

If you could control the behavior of anybody around you, what kind of life would you have?

[Narrator (Mind Games Promo)]

Can you hypnotically persuade someone to buy a car?

[Rory Scovell]

When you look at your car, you're gon to become overwhelmed with such good feelings.

[Narrator (Mind Games Promo)]

Can you hypnotize someone into sleeping with you?

[Rory Scovell]

I gave her some suggestions to be sexually aroused.

[Narrator (Mind Games Promo)]

Can you get someone to join your cult?

[Amanda Knox]

NLP was used on me to access my subconscious mind games.

[Narrator (Mind Games Promo)]

A new podcast exploring nlp, AKA Neuro linguistic programming. Is it a self help miracle, a shady hypnosis scam, or both? Listen to Mind Games on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Amanda Knox]

I'm Amanda Knox and in the new podcast the Case of Lucy Letby, we unpack the story of an unimaginable tragedy that gripped the UK in 2023. But what if we didn't get the whole story?

[Josh Dean]

Evidence has been made to fit. The moment you look at the whole picture, the case collapsed.

[Amanda Knox]

What if the truth was disguised by a story we chose to believe?

[Josh Dean]

Oh my God.

[Nancy Glass]

I think she might be innocent.

[Amanda Knox]

Listen to Doubt the Case of Lucy Letby on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Josh Dean]

This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.