Hamilton woman uses TikTok trick to fleece laundromat of coins

Tira Tipene struck this Hamilton laundromat, on Peachgrove Rd, on two separate occasions to steal coins. Photo / Belinda Feek

The temptation to try out a TikTok hack of stealing coins from laundromat coin machines proved too hard for one Hamilton woman to resist and within two weeks she’d fleeced nearly $400 from several businesses.

“Clearly, it works,” Judge Stephen Clark said dryly to Tira Ngahiriwa Mereana Tipene’s counsel, Kerry Hadaway, in the Hamilton District Court today.

While the method is detailed on the social media app, NZME has chosen not to print exactly how Tipene pocketed her ill-gotten gains, other than to say she was able to “trick the machine” into giving her coins using a banknote.

Tipene first tried out the method using a $20 note in a coin machine at the Peachgrove Rd 24/7 laundromat on April 18.

The method worked and $20 worth of coins popped out, and she got the $20 note back.

She tried it again and although she got the coins; the machine ate her $20.

Tipene went back to the same laundromat on April 26, and this time using a $50 note. Again, she was successful in getting $50 in coins, so did it four times in total, pocketing $200 in coins before being busted by police and arrested at the scene.

Despite her arrest she went to a laundromat in Melville on May 1 where she put in another $50 note into the change machine which dispensed $50 in coins. In total, she made $150, before driving off.

‘She’s remorseful and embarrassed’

Tipene’s counsel Kerry Hadaway said her client had seen the method of tricking the machine on Tiktok and couldn’t help but try it.

“She’s remorseful, she’s embarrassed ... this is certainly not behaviour she usually engages in but unfortunately the temptation got the better of her.”

Tipene admitted three theft charges and one more unusual charge of designing goods with intent to facilitate a crime.

Judge Clark said given there wasn’t a particularly high loss a sentence of 100 hours’ community work would be appropriate.

He also ordered reparation of $390 to be paid at $20 a week starting tomorrow.

Belinda Feek is an Open Justice reporter based in Waikato. She has worked at NZME for nine years and has been a journalist for 20.