How the theft of a single dime cost this dude his job with Wells Fargo

Um, this is just insane. On Feb. 2, 1963, Richard Eggers tried to put a piece of cardboard in the shape of a dime into a washer at a laundromat. He got convicted of “operating a coin changing machine by false means,” which sounds like the silliest thing in the world to get charged with, right? Yeah, it was pretty dumb. Recently, Eggers lost his job with Wells Fargo. Why? Well, the company, in an effort to follow new federal guidelines designed to stop white-collar criminals, did a background check on Eggers. They found the dime story, classified it as fraud — and fired him. Wells Fargo says they had to do it, because they were facing million-dollar-per-day fines for noncompliance. Anyone think they were just looking for an excuse to fire this guy? (photo by Andrea Melendez/The Des Moines Register; ht LoweringTheBar)