McDonald's Monopoly Dumpster Dive

A story about how Shaan and his college friends tried to win McDonald's Monopoly by dumpster diving instead of finding a smarter way.

"When I was a sophomore in college, my friends and I had a genius idea to try to win the McDonald's Monopoly game. Unlike the movies where the guy who actually did it figured out how to win by working at the factory that made the pieces, we just tried to brute force it.

I would have respected myself more if I had contacted the place that made the pieces and been like 'Hey man, I'll give you $1,000 if you tell me where Boardwalk is.' Instead, we were just like 'We're just gonna dig through dumpsters and get the pieces that people throw out and see if we can win.'

I ended up making like $3 that year. We found something and it was probably worth like a couple thousand, but I wasted like a semester of brain power doing this. I thought I was winning, but it's like winning a carnival game - you spend $90 winning a bear that you could've just bought for $6."