90,000 pennies: Georgia man’s final paycheck comes in oily coins after he complains about not getting paid

FAYETTEVILLE, Ga. — A Georgia man says his former employer owed him a pretty penny — $915 — when he left his job in November.

But Andreas Flaten says he was shocked to see how that was paid — in 90,000 oil- or grease-covered pennies left at the end of his driveway.

Left on top of the pile, he says, was an envelope containing his final pay stub and an explicit parting message.

“A childish thing to do,” Flaten calls that.

He says he left his job at Peachtree City’s A OK Walker Autoworks in November but, after having a hard time getting his final paycheck, turned to the Georgia Department of Labor for help.

In mid-March, Flaten says he noticed something piled up at the end of his driveway as he left his house with his girlfriend — the pennies, covered with some oily substance.

Now, his nightly routine consists of cleaning the pennies so he can cash them in. He says it took him about an hour and a half to clean several hundred.

“I think that’s going to be a lot of work for money I’ve already worked for,” he says. “It’s definitely not fair at all.”

Miles Walker, the owner of the shop, told WGCL-TV he didn’t know whether he’d dropped off the pennies at Flaten’s house.

“I don’t really remember,” Walker told the TV station. “It doesn’t matter. He got paid. That’s all that matters.”

Flaten’s girlfriend Olivia Oxley says they are over being angry and are looking at what happened in a positive light.

“With that many pennies, we’re bound to find a few treasures,” Oxley says. “I’ve already found one from 1937.

“After the first shovelful, all we could do was laugh because this poor, miserable man took so much time to be vindictive and cruel. We absolutely refused to let him ruin a single moment of ours.”