Named And Shamed

[PMK]

Fashion Cafe - Colchester Town Centre

Owned by a complete prick.

Mate walks in, £90 in for a £105 top on full steamin. Tries to leave pub.

Stopped by owner, who calls over two bouncers.

Is 'told' to empty out pockets. Bout £200 in coins, owner takes coins while bouncers have him pinned to back wall.

Police are called. Incredibly they side with landlord as a refil key is discovered in other pocket.

Player is slung out minus £200 in coins.

In my mind that is theft. Revenge will be sweet, when you least expect it.

Comments and suggestions please.

Its not even my money and I am fuming!!!

[mattrick]

They cant just search someone without good reason that is illegal.

[theoak]

Of course thats theft! refill keys are not illegal to own, not illegal to use.

He won 105 from them even if it HAD been by illegal means, the other £100 wasnt! but thats irrelevant as it was won fair and square.

Re legality:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refill_Key

[Dynamike]

I still think their legality is borderline, I've heard rumours of people being arrested for having them. Someone off here told me about a part of a paticular statute that says something about being 'equipped to cheat' which has been used before. A bit ridiculous really but I can understand the sentiments behind it: they are amusements with prizes, not really designed to make a living out of, keying gives an unfair advantage and could be argued isn't in the spirit of what the machines are for; amusement. Just playing devil's advocate there really.

And, more importantly, since when has Wikipedia been 100% accurate

[PMK]

Just to point out, he didn't use the key in the pub as it was £1 in full anyway.

[Scott]

my mate got arrested for like you say going equipped too cheat, it went too court and he got off with it. i think the whole extreme thing has bought it really on top and landlords/barstaff are looking for it more these days.

[Mystery_Plum]

I'm going to invent a refill key that dissolves on contact with any drinkable liquid. That way if things get a bit 'warm' in a pub, simply drop your key into your pint, or half-a-coke, and the evidence is quickly gone.

Seriously though, please let us know if you do anything in revenge. I love revenge stories.

My brother and a mate went into a dodgy estate pub down South a few years back and got into a bit of bother. You can tell if it's a rough estate pub because the brickwork looks the fucking same as all the neighbouring houses.

After taking a quick genuine £100 out of an Austin Powers, the pub went very quiet and some local 'toughs' turned up with bats and so on, and threatened to call the police.

"If you don't, we will!" said my brother's mate.

20 minutes passed and no sign of the rozzers. My brother's mate (can't remember who it was, may have been Cookie from Yarmouth) started to get a bit agitated. Eventually after arguing with them they got out minus £50. Fucking disgusting.

[ob]

The thing is, although we all say they are legal etc., the person who catches you doing it probably doesn't think they are legal; I doubt many coppers that may be called are too informed about this either. As such, you shit yourself if they do end up calling the police, even resorting to discretely chucking the key away/hiding it lol!

I imagine they could do you for doing extreme's with a key, as you are getting money that the machine wouldn't have originally paid without the use of a key; even in this case, I doubt they'd actually bother to take it to court.

[anfield road]

if the police get called refill yey up the arse, aint allowed to search you there unless they think you have drugs on you.

[GaryChandler]

i got caught usin a refil key about a year ago dint make nuffin of it 10 mins later police turned up took my key away from me bout 5 mins later gave it bk to me lmao dint even get barred from arcade

[theoak]

if the police get called refill yey up the arse, aint allowed to search you there unless they think you have drugs on you.

what you on about? Of course police can search you without the suspicion of drugs

[jeffvickers]

Walk into that cafe when his heavies aren't on with 2 of your heavies and smash him and his pub to pieces, fucking thieving prick, in the meantime, all fruitie players, look u the pub on yellow pages on line or whatever, and start sending your little wind-ups to his pub, fucking prick.

[Dunhamzzz]

As im sure I've mention, this has happened to me. (£50 taken from me)

But the first thing I did before calling the police was stash my refil key! I just hid it under a bench and went and got it later.

Winning on fruities is a very suspicious area, dont give them anything to go by! Any type of "key" doesnt sound good does it?

Only got ya selves to blame tbh. You really have gotta be careful about dealing with things like that.

I had a good result. btw

[blackmogu]

Most people won't actually go the extra mile of physical violence. In the decade of fruit playing I've had, I've never been lightened of my load because I've always stood my ground. I've been threatened loads of times, but it's usually just bully bluster, and you have to remember, every police attendance at a premises goes against their license application renewal. Added to that, if anyone connected with the bar gets convicted of something in line with their work, they will lose their ability to hold a license. They all know that. It's a game of brinksmanship where you know the likely outcome.

[theoak]

I have never once been REMOTELY threatened for fruit winnings. I think it helps being in London, as you won't come across m/any backward yokels here. Also being of a good build and speaking good english helps as well. I have been banned and kicked out and only once been caught using a re-fill key, was taken to 'security' and accused of robbing the place, but was allowed to keep my money while the engineer came and checked the meters were correct- obvoulsy barman didnt have a clue what a refill key is.