McMillions (2020): Season 1, Episode 1 - Episode 1 - full transcript

I want some!

It's the Monopoly game,
only at McDonald's!

With over 50 million prizes,
it's supersized excitement...

- Monopoly.
- Do not pass "Go."

Go directly to McDonald's.

If you were around
back in the '90s...

Now at McDonald's,
Monopoly is more than a game!

You can play it...

You heard it everywhere.

The game Monopoly
is back at McDonald's,

bigger and better than ever.



This year,
there's more prizes than ever.

McDonald's ran
the Monopoly game for years.

Hey, collect
the right game pieces...

And win $2 million.

But no one...

knew the truth about
the game being played.

No one.

People everywhere
are winning big!

♪ I've been caught stealing ♪

♪ Once, when I was five ♪

♪ I enjoy stealing ♪

The McDonald's prizes could be cars...

boats... $100,000...
up to the $1,000,000.

♪ When I want something, man ♪



♪ I don't wanna pay for it ♪

But from 1989 to 2001...

I won a Dodge Viper!

There were almost no legitimate winners

of the high value game pieces

in the McDonald's Monopoly game.

I mean, how crazy
bullshit is that?

♪ It's mine ♪

Jacksonville FBI had
a little bit of a reputation

of being a Sleepy Hollow
retirement office.

There was a slower
attitude there.

Very undersized.

You know, a fraction

of a Miami or an Atlanta
or something like that,

spread, you know...
spread very thin.

At the time, in 2001,
I supervised a squad

of approximately 12 agents
charged with investigating

white-collar crime, bank fraud,

healthcare fraud,
public corruption.

Even before I got there,

I kept hearing about
this legendary guy, Rick Dent,

mid-career senior agent
and his partner Doug Mathews,

a newly assigned agent
to the division.

I'm Special Agent Mathews.

When you pull Jacksonville
as an office you're going to,

I know what I heard was,
"Good luck with that."

For big cases, man, you are...
you're like duct-taping stuff

together just 'cause
you wanna make it happen.

That's the type
of division you were in.

I was lucky to link up
with Rick Dent early on

and have him as the old guard,
you know, my training agent.

He's a mathematician and has
about as much personality

as this piece of wood
right here.

Very matter of fact.

And so he and I were
kind of opposites there.

You know, I'm always looking
for another fun ride, right?

If you guys get to Rick Dent,

I'm telling you he's gonna be...

"Yes."

"No."

"Don't recall."

The priority for the FBI

at that particular juncture
was healthcare fraud.

We're working a one-
to three-year type case.

That's a long time.

Sometimes I have that ADD thing

of the shinier object
or whatever.

So I see this note
in the corner part of his desk,

and all I saw was
"McDonald's Monopoly Fraud?"

with a question mark.

And I go, "What is that?"

'Cause I'm bored to death

of this healthcare garbage,
right?

It's important,
but I was ready to move on.

I go, "Is this the McDonald's
Monopoly game?"

He was like, "Yeah.

Eventually I was gonna
get around to it."

So what he told me was
that there was an individual

who had called in
and had this story

that the Monopoly game
was fixed.

That was pretty much it.

I go, "Give me that damn thing.

I'm gonna go check this out."

I'm seeing the fun
meter with that.

Like, that's gotta be
more fun than this shit

that I'm looking at.

Dent thought it was
just some BS story...

so, "Pfff, this... yeah, here.

Run with this for a little bit,
young man."

I contacted the source
of this call,

and the source

gave me three names

that were previous
million-dollar winners

and said,
"I know this is fixed because

"these people are related.

"They're on
the family tree somehow.

With all different names."

And the person
who's controlling this

was this nebulous name
of Uncle Jerry.

So I come back, like,
I'm excited right?

I got the biggest case
ever, right?

And I said, "Look,
all million-dollar winners.

"We need to be on this.

Screw that health...
" I think I probably said that."

"Screw that healthcare shit
we're working, right?"

Or something like that.

I don't... Rick,
I don't know if that was it,

or I know you would
never agree with that.

But like any senior agent goes...

and this happens
even in today's Bureau.

The new young guy goes out

and finds a nice piece of gold.

The old agent goes,

"Give me that back,
and let me look at this."

That's about how it was.

Truth be told,
I was a little skeptical.

You know, fast food,
promotional game fraud

was not making any list
of priorities anywhere.

I don't think anybody
had really even seen anything

like this before, so...

there's always a risk that I
turn these guys loose on this,

and it turns out it's not true

and that I've expended
resources,

but you know,
I think we all realized...

if this is true, this is,
you know... this is big.

What Rick did was
immediately get in touch

with the U. S. Attorney's
Office and Mark Devereaux,

'cause if you don't have
an interest from a prosecutor,

you're wasting your time.

Devereaux was the go-to guy

that prosecuted
all of our white-collar stuff.

If there's a chance
this thing can be indicted,

prosecuted,
even if it's a difficult case,

he's gonna be the guy to do it

because he's the guy
behind the wheel.

That part of the sell,
to get that prosecutor on was...

that was a big deal.

I don't know if Devereaux
knew what Monopoly game was.

I have no idea.

You know, I think
he was a Burger King guy.

I don't know.

My name's Mark Devereaux,
Assistant U. S. Attorney

for almost 30 years.

In this case, it was, you know,

I don't know if this is real,
or don't know

if it's just somebody
trying to get family members

somehow interviewed
and get 'em in trouble.

But lo and behold...

when we received
a list of all the winners,

we were able to show,
through different databases,

that these individuals
were related.

They had family connections

in the local Jacksonville area.

In my world,

you don't believe
in coincidences very much.

And the chance of having
numerous family members

and relatives win the game
was just astronomical.

Basically, you've got
less of a chance than you do

of getting struck
by lightning in Florida.

At that point in time,
we knew there was a problem.

How big was that problem?
We had no idea.

The information
that we were compiling

is that their contest
had been infected

years before we became aware.

I mean, we're talking,
you know, altogether,

potentially hundreds
of millions of dollars

of these prizes.

Well, how much of that is fraud?

Once Devereaux said, "Yeah,
I'm interested in this,"

he's on for everything.

All the strategy sessions.

Some prosecutors,
you see that space, you know.

Devereaux, you got no space.

Right all up in there with you.

So we start with where
could there be the opportunity

to steal the game piece?

We weren't sure
if there was somebody inside

with McDonald's,
where that person was,

how many, and how far that went.

How many suspects do we have?

We have to figure out
who makes the cups,

who makes the fry box,

who makes these game pieces
that you would pull off...

how many people
are in this chain?

There's all
kinds of possibilities.

This could be the driver,
the delivery people,

people in the factory,
or even, you know,

somebody in corporate
at McDonald's.

We didn't close out anyone.

So there reached a point
where there was a ton

of questions, but it was,
I mean, very difficult

to pursue that further without
putting some action to it.

There wasn't a lot of, like,
let me just, you know,

at the time get on
the Internet and do some...

there wasn't a lot of that.

We clearly had
to start somewhere,

but without
compromising the case.

So we needed a source
of information on the inside.

There was a big decision
to be made, and that was:

do we contact McDonald's?

Because we just ran
into a dead end.

I was sitting back going,
"Don't let 'em know.

I don't want them involved yet.
Way too soon."

But that's me.
And I was... that was just one

little tiny voice, and I mean
tiny when I say that.

Of course there's
a possibility that somebody

in McDonald's is involved
or knows about this

and is looking the other way,

but that was a risk
we were willing to,

you know, ultimately
willing to take.

We didn't want to alert

too many people at McDonald's,

so we contacted their
head of global security,

Rob Holm, and told him that,

"It would probably be best for
you to come to Jacksonville."

Didn't tell him why.

Just told him,
"You have to come and see us."

That this was need-to-know only.

Do not tell anybody
you're coming to see the FBI,

to keep it quiet.

McDonald's sent three people

and I personally picked them
up here in Jacksonville,

and we drove over to the FBI
office in the morning.

Mostly it was just,
"Welcome to Jacksonville,"

this and that.

Didn't even explain
to them what we had.

We got to the FBI office...

Took 'em up
to the conference room...

You know, you're evaluating
their body language

or whether they're twitching.

Are they genuine?
Are they legitimate?

Or is there... you know, is there
something else going on here?

At that point, we did not know

if McDonald's was involved.

Every organization
can have a bad apple.

This part of the investigation

was extremely boring to me.

Like, I don't want
anything to do with this.

"Call me when it's over, Rick,"
right?

And... which was sort
of my M. O. a lot of times.

It's way too slow for me,

but I was... "No, you gotta
be here for that."

And I so I think I showed up.
I might've had a gold suit on.

I had it in the closet,

and I thought,
"This is a great opportunity,

when it's like a golden
fry suit," right?

Man, when I wore that
in there, Mark Devereaux,

if he could've ripped it off
with his hands, he would have.

He goes, "Are you kidding me?"

But I had a white
shirt on, right?

So I thought I was safe.

I wasn't.

Doug has quite a wardrobe,
and there he is sitting there.

And lo and behold, he looks like

he's a manager of a McDonald's.

They thought it was cool.

I'm kidding.

So when you're there
in that meeting, very tense.

I went up to a whiteboard
and started putting names down.

And I asked,
"Do you recognize the names?"

"No, sir."

"All these people

are winners on your
promotional games."

And then I started drawing lines

of family connections
and relationships.

Devereaux's putting it
right on the whiteboard there.

"Well, did you know this?
Do you know this?"

Brothers, sisters, cousins,

a mother-daughter,
that type thing.

This person is married
to this person's daughter.

And the names, the last names,
were all different.

And I remember it was
literally jaws on the table.

They just could not believe it.

Even though we had,
it looked like,

our corporate victim
here of McDonald's,

are they truly a victim?

I mean, there's always that.

And so, there was
more information there

than I would've
probably put out there.

Certainly enough
for them to see,

"Wow, yeah, we have an issue."

Everybody agreed that
we needed to keep this circle

of individuals
that had this knowledge

to the absolute minimum.

You know, Devereaux
was doing most the talking

as he usually does,
and it just seemed like

this meeting just took forever.

I don't even know
if I was hungry;

I might've been hungry
twice in that meeting.

Proving this case historically,

which is what we traditionally
did in white-collar cases

when you rely on paperwork,

you rely on witness interviews,

you rely on bank statements,
was gonna be very difficult.

I mean, almost monumental.

So we would, in this case,
have to think outside the box.

And then we find out
that they were on the cusp

of running another game.

It was kind of a perfect fit
because we were looking

to doing something proactively,

essentially catch people
in the act.

We told them the only way

to identify this
criminal enterprise was

to have them run a game
knowing that there's fraud

somewhere involved in this.

- We have this.
- We're going forward.

We want your help.

If the answer is no...

nothing happens.

My name is Rob Holm,

Director of Global Security
for McDonald's.

Our brand is,
throughout the world,

37,000 restaurants

in 120 countries.

So it's... it's a big
responsibility.

When I first learned
about our Monopoly game

being compromised,
I was shocked.

I was utterly shocked.

How in the world
could this have happened?

More importantly, was anybody
from McDonald's a part of this?

The FBI wanted
to run the promotion

knowing that it was rigged.

I was hesitant to do that,

obviously concerned that
if this game is rigged,

customers are not
even gonna get a chance

to win the million dollars.

I think we were naive
to think that they would agree

right then and there
and, you know, we'd be off to,

you know, off... off and running.

These promotions were...

of everything McDonald's,
one of the bright spots.

You know, I remember
the mad cow, and at that time,

McDonald's was, you know,

struggling with
some image things.

Concern over Britain's
so-called mad cow disease

spread late today
to McDonald's restaurants.

First mad cow, now this.

♪ McDonald's and you ♪

♪ McDonald's and you,
sharing good times ♪

The most important thing
for McDonald's

is their brand name.

They're a family restaurant
that can be trusted.

Their golden arches
are a part of America.

♪ Remember there's
only one McDonald's ♪

♪ And there's only one you ♪

They have to protect that.

♪ McDonald's and you ♪

And so, if it's on the 6:00
news and the national news

that McDonald's
games are a fraud,

they could suffer
irreparable damage

to their good name.

I wasn't in their meetings,

but I would bet
dollars to doughnuts

that there were a few people
that said, "We can't do this.

Shut it off," and nobody
ever finds out about this.

They wanted this big meeting.

And so we went
out there to Illinois,

at their headquarters.

They got, like, this...

great coffee inside to...

you know,
when you walk in their place

and you're waiting on them.

So anyway, I know
that's a... aside.

And at that time,
we weren't sure

which way they were gonna go.

That was a heck of a decision.

There were so many "what ifs."

What if it's somebody
within our own company?

A traitor?

We've got a problem.

They needed to find that out,

because if they had just
shut down,

it may have continued.

Look, how many people
been playing this thing?

And they're gonna find out
we didn't help burn this down.

McDonald's knew
they had a ticking bomb.

Making that call
was something that

we took seriously.

Our worry all along was

that this could be
leaked out publically.

So it was not an easy decision,

but ultimately,
we owed it to our customers

to do the right thing,

which is to run the game
one more time.

We absolutely knew that
if we didn't get this right,

we're not getting another
opportunity.

It's not like, "Don't worry.

We'll run this again
next month."

We knew that, at best,
we had this one shot

to move our investigation.

♪ This is how we do it ♪

From that point,
it was literally,

"McDonald's, tell us
how this program works."

But McDonald's
makes French fries

and hamburgers
and milkshakes and apple pies.

They don't make marketing.

They outsourced it.

They hired a marketing
company, Simon Marketing.

♪ This is how we do it ♪

Simon Marketing actually
produced and came up with

the Happy Meal toys
back in the '80s.

Your kids will love
McDonald's Happy Meal.

It's food and fun in a box.

The Happy Meal is gonna
increase your business,

but it's for the children.

I've got a Happy Meal!

They wanted
a promotion for the adult.

♪ Like McDonald's can ♪

I'm Richard White,

started at Simon Marketing
in 1981.

The game Monopoly has
come to life at McDonald's.

The Monopoly game,
we designed that game

and it was running once a year.

A $2 million grand prize!

Play Monopoly.

It was a ridiculous
amount of increase

in McDonald's business.

Like, 40% when we ran the game.

People love collecting.

The Monopoly promotion

is much like the "Monopoly"
game you would have at home.

Customers try
to match game pieces,

like Boardwalk and Park Place.

They had their cards,
and it'd be full,

but they'd be missing a piece
and a piece and a piece...

and a piece and a piece...
'cause those were

the winning pieces.

And there was low-value
pieces that you could win

food items, beverages,

and then some
of the high-value pieces:

homes, vehicles,
and the million dollars.

Boardwalk.

Boardwalk?

So they were after that
million-dollar winner.

You know, people
like chance games.

Any game we did for McDonald's

always increased their business.

We actually did
Scrabble one year.

Got to where they started
doing it twice a year.

How are we gonna
get our sales back up?

Let's run Monopoly again.

♪ This is how we do it ♪

♪ All hands up in the air ♪

There were very specific rules

for how you could
obtain the game piece.

One of the ways was
that you could just walk in

and ask, for free,
to get a game piece.

Because otherwise
it was gambling.

How else can you
get the game piece?

You could go in
and buy a food product,

and you could get the game piece

out of some of the magazines.

Nowhere in the game
rules does it say,

"I can get a game piece
from Uncle Jerry."

♪ This is how we do it ♪

With a significant case,

an undercover operation
or something that involves

a lot of people,
you could give it a name.

So we had a contest
to come up with a name

among... among the squad.

Some of the names, uh...

Operation Unhappy Meal,
Fallen Arches.

I think there were a few
playing on the Hamburglar,

something about Stale Fries.

I don't think
we sent that one up

to headquarters for approval.

I think calmer,
more rational minds prevailed.

The new promotional
game was called,

"Who Wants
to Be a Millionaire?"

to match up with the TV show.

Play the "Who Wants
to be a Millionaire"

game at McDonald's.

If you remember
the TV show, they asked,

"Is that your final answer?"

- Final answer?
- Final answer.

So that ultimately became
the name of this operation.

Game time.

Kickoff has started,
and we're in the game.

At the time,
I was always looking for

an undercover angle,
even though I was being told,

"You don't want that.
You don't want that."

You know, I was always asking,

"What about this one?
What about this one?"

Go get the bad guy, right?

I wanna burn down
the criminal enterprise.

Maybe it's the...
the accountant in him

or this Walter Mitty complex,

but this was the opportunity

to, you know,
be an undercover agent

even before we could
articulate the need

to do any kind of undercover...
that there was always this,

you know, somehow, some way,

we gotta do
an undercover in this thing.

Every single meeting,
I'm the one over there going,

"Undercover investigation,
undercover investigation."

I didn't think
anybody was listening.

As a matter of fact,
I think a couple of them

started out with, "Mathews,
I don't wanna hear anything

"about an undercover
investigation.

Just sit over there
and listen."

Rick always coined that
I was the George Costanza

'cause "Seinfeld"
was big back then.

All right, that's it for me.

Take care, everybody.

I'd come in and I'd say,
"Undercover,"

and I'm gone, I was out.

You could kind of let him
run with things a little bit

and then bring him back
to reality.

Okay, "Yeah, that's great, Doug.

"By the way, I still need
that FD-302 you promised me,

"so why don't you
go get that done,

and then we'll talk
about undercover work."

So we get the call
from McDonald's that this guy,

Michael Hoover, a winner,
had claimed the latest prize.

So we had the advantage
of knowing this person's name,

and we're able to do a little
bit of preliminary background.

Think he worked as a pit boss
at a casino.

So I guess he would've
been familiar with

gambling and sweepstakes
and whatnot.

Rick wanted to try
to do the wiretap.

It's a called a Title III
investigation, and it's...

the wiretap
investigation got up.

And, you know, you're sitting...

you're not really
doing anything,

and that's
a boring situation for me.

I don't know how
many poems I can write

on a piece of paper
to get through it.

So I said, "Look,
what do you think about this?"

When you win,
part of your signing up

as a winner is to say,
"Hey, I'm okay with using

my face in the big check,"
or whatever it is

for future promotions.

So I saw that as an opportunity.

Let's use that
as a platform for us.

I said, "I think this
is a great opportunity

"for an undercover
investigation where we do

"this TV commercial
of the winners

"like Publishers Clearing House.

"Jumping up, telling us
how they won these

"and what they did with it,
that kind of thing.

"So we could do
that with Hoover.

"You know, we're
the production company.

That's how this could roll."

He's like, "Mathews,
who's gonna do this?

You gonna do it?
'Cause I'm not doing it."

And I said,
"Yeah, I'm gonna do it."

He goes, "Well, you don't
know anything about that."

And I said,
"I'm gonna be the director.

"Because they don't do shit.

"And then I'm gonna
get McDonald's to give me

their public relations."

That's all I said.

And Rick goes, "Wait a minute.

"If we're going to do anything,

we're gonna need
SAC authority."

- I'm Tom Kneir.
- I was the special agent

in charge of the Jacksonville
office of the FBI.

In each office, you have
the SAC for the office.

That's their
Special Agent in Charge.

And then you have squads.

Most of the contact is usually
with the squad supervisor.

But this was... this
was a particular case

that, you know, I had
a lot of hands-on with Chris

and everybody that
worked on that case.

Doug was almost
brand new at the time,

and he's been given
a badge, a gun,

and some credentials,

and now he's got
a Superman's cape, right?

And away he goes.

So the next day,
I think I was called.

And he said, "Hey,
you need to come up here."

When you hear your name,

"Mathews to the SAC's office,"

never good.

Never, ever good.

And everybody knows.
It's like the walk of shame.

To the elevators, whatever.

"Oh, shit, Mathews.

I hope you still
have a paycheck."

'Cause they all know it's bad.

And so I come in
and it's SAC Kneir, CDC,

the Chief Division Council,
Rick Dent, Graham,

in this room about
this size, so small.

And they all, like, turned
to look at me, and I'm like...

And I go, "I'm sorry."

That's all I said.

And Rick goes,

"You know,
I think this might work.

And he's gonna do it."

And that right then was
probably... if I was ever, like,

concerned about,
"I don't know, man.

This might get somewhere..."
you know, whatever,

be careful what
you ask for, thing?

Maybe that was
the moment for me,

but it quickly passed
and I was back in.

We didn't have
a lot of undercover agents

in Jacksonville.

You know, you could call
headquarters and say,

"Hey, you know, we need
a undercover agent down here."

"Well, he's not available
for three weeks,"

and, you know.
And so we... we'd just

kind of rolled the dice
and said, "You know what?

Doug is a little bit
of an actor anyway,"

so I guess that's
when my hair turned white.

No.

Being an undercover agent,
it's not just something

you raise your hand
and decide to do.

You know, there's
a stringent process, a school,

testing, all these things
that didn't exactly mesh

with Doug's concept
of being undercover.

You know, he wanted to...

wanted to get right
up there on stage.

He was not
a certified undercover,

but for a specific case,

you can get what
they call SAC authority

to do undercover work,
and that's what Doug Mathews

did just for that specific case.

My name's Janet Pellicciotti,
and I was a special agent

for the FBI in
the Jacksonville Division.

I was our undercover
coordinator also,

and I tried to get him
to become an undercover agent

because he was just...
he was a natural.

Undercover was like acting,
only...

it's real.

You know, you sit there
and there's a real threat,

and somebody could harm you.

They could really harm you.

The Jacksonville Division,

if you talk
to Agent Pellicciotti,

is a small division that
didn't do a lot of this.

Right, so I got
to do all the fun

and not have to go through
all the bullshit.

Yeah, just make it happen.
That's what it was.

"Hey, Mathews,
just make it happen."

And I'm thinking to myself...

And then two is...

He wanted to be thrown
into the lion's den,

and he wouldn't have gotten
it if the SAC did not feel

he could handle himself.

So they got some
undercovers, you know,

to act as a film crew.

My name is Jan Garvin,
and I was videographer.

When I answered
his call, he said,

"You're gonna love this."

Not, "Hey, Jan, how's it going?

Let's go, you know...
how was the trip?"

You know, it was like,
"You're gonna love this."

And after he explained
what it was, it was like...

And...

We needed to put together
what appears to be

a legitimate production company.

A video person, an audio person,

a director and a...
an interviewer.

I go, "Yeah, I need
one just to act like

"they're the lighting
person or whatever.

"Nobody needs to see
that you're Bureau, right?

"So give me somebody that's
not stupid, 'cause,

you know, we don't
know jack, right?"

In my mind I just thought,
you know, just get on the stage

and everything will be fine;
you'll just roll right through.

With any production company

and any good
undercover operation,

you need a good name
and in this case,

we came up with
Shamrock Productions.

Which is good,
but I always liked the byline,

"'Cause you're just lucky."

That was... that was good.

We thought about
having everybody

in this undercover
operation be FBI personnel.

They legitimately tried
to make that happen.

It just... the way that
this scenario had to run,

you needed somebody
inside McDonald's

with that background.

That would be hard to fake.

My name's Amy Murray.

I've been with McDonald's
for 22 years.

The FBI investigation
happened 17 years ago,

and it's been years
since I've talked to anyone,

so, in fact, I don't really
tell the story that much

because, you know,

how do you drop
into conversation that

you're part
of an FBI investigation?

Back in 2001, I was in
the communications department.

I had only been
working on Monopoly and games

for about six months.

My boss's boss called me into
his office and he was like,

"Amy, the FBI has contacted us.

"They've told us that the game
pieces are being stolen

"and that the entire game
may be compromised

by a criminal ring."

And if you can imagine,
I was completely shocked.

You know, I felt sick
to my stomach.

To break that trust
was just devastating.

How could this possibly happen?

I started thinking back
to all the answers

that I've heard from
Monopoly winners in the past,

and it did seem like
they were almost scripted.

Hindsight's 20/20,
and I started to realize

that it did seem like
there was a pattern.

You know, I used that word,
"pattern" and I think that

was when the FBI really said,

"It would be great
to talk to Amy directly,

since she has so much contact
with the winners."

For a civilian to participate
in an undercover operation

doesn't happen much at all,
for obvious reasons, right?

It's... if something happens,

you want people who are
professionals that are

used to being
in situations like that.

I was a little concerned,
because I wanted to make sure

that her safety and security
was first and foremost.

They said, "Rob, don't worry.
She will be safe."

We really didn't know
how far we would have to go

to help the FBI get evidence,

and yes,
there were nerves involved,

and I was nervous.

But I was all-in.

You know, I wanted to make
it right as fast as possible.

So I would be talking
to the FBI sometimes every day,

sometimes twice a day.

People were intrigued, like,
"What's this special project?"

I just couldn't talk
about this, not to my family,

not to my closest friends,

not even to coworkers.

We told a couple people

in McDonald's and then
our team; that's it.

'Cause we still didn't know,
you gotta remember...

like, this investigation...
we still didn't know

if anybody was infected

through corporate,
right, or who.

So we set up a time for

Shamrock Productions to go up

and visit Mr. Hoover.

He had already been
in contact with Amy,

and he was very amenable
to us coming by to film

this commercial that
we were putting together.

I'll never forget
showing up at an airport,

and a white van pulled up
with all of the FBI agents

and, you know, they're like,
you know, "Hi, Amy."

And I was introduced
to all of them.

You know, I really
had to talk to Doug about,

"This is what
a producer would do;

this is what
the cameraman would do."

And I was just playing myself.

So the first time
we're going out there,

I think I had,
like, a golf shirt on.

I looked like maybe
I'd played nine holes

or something like that.

That's what Amy told me
what a director looks like...

looks like somebody that's
just come off the golf course.

So I'm excited, right?

But I have a lot
of apprehension as well.

It's the first one.

You want it to be seamless,

and you don't know
what to expect.

As an agent, you know,
you wanna carry a gun

and wear a bulletproof vest.

But in a situation like this,
an undercover operation,

that may be too much risk.

You can wear an ankle holster
and then, you know,

and then you sit down
in a chair,

and somebody sees it, so...

You had that little extra
antenna going up to make sure

you don't say anything
or do anything

that would trigger
their suspect to look at you

crossways and go, "Oh, hmm..."

I had butterflies in my stomach.

I was nervous about not
wrecking the investigation.

You know, I really wanted
to make sure I did a good job,

that I wasn't
causing any suspicion.

It's an adrenaline that
happens through your system.

You know, you feel
fully awake and alive.

She was very nervous,
and I'm like,

"You talk to these people
all the time, right?"

"Well, yeah,
but not like this."

And I go,
"There's not like this.

"You don't know anything
about our investigation.

They don't either,
so forget about that."

She's laughing, like,

"How am I supposed to forget
about that?", right?

And I said, "You got
to forget about that

and just do what
you normally do."

"We're very close to the exit.
We know where it is.

"Just stay as close as you can

'cause I don't know
what to expect."

Any civilian that you bring
in, you're gonna tell them,

"We have a team.
There's always a team outside.

"If anything happens,
they'll be there immediately

to make sure
you're safe and secure."

We have distress calls,
things like that.

So if the undercover agent
says a certain word, you know,

"I feel like
a terrible flu is coming on,"

something's really gone wrong;
we got a problem.

And so they went to his home.

They came in...

and so you have the FBI agents,
unbeknownst to Mr. Hoover,

with the cameras
on their shoulder.

If we were set up to record

pretty much anything, we would
hit the record button.

You never know
what you're gonna capture.

Always gold when
they don't know it.

The greatest thing
in the world about all this

is what?

We had a camera rolling.

What was that?

You think you could take that

to your local bank to cash?

- I doubt it.
- I doubt it.

We'll do this at the end.

Amy, she, you know,
worked her McDonald's magic,

and she had all this
confetti popper stuff

and the big check.

We never know whenever
we get a call from Amy

sort of where we're gonna...
it's always good to find out

where she always takes us
to a different area.

A good surprise.

Yeah, that's definitely
childproof.

I mean, it's big check.

I think it was taller
than her, actually.

Everything had
to seem very natural.

It had to seem like we had
done this a million times.

We made sure that
I always called Doug, "Doug"

and not "Agent Mathews,"

because it would have
been really bad if suddenly

I was like, "Uh, Agent Mathews,
can you go do this?"

Amy was really nervous,
the whole time.

So... which was good.

It was healthy to be that way,

'cause I told her I was too,
and I wasn't... you know,

I wasn't lying to her.

She's used to this; I'm not.

Even though I said,
"Oh, I got this," right?

She had no idea that
I had never done this before,

but I loved it.

- There's Mr. Monopoly.
- There he is!

- All right.
- It's gotta be sinking in now.

Now it's official,
Ronald McDonald,

the official signature.

Doug Mathews could talk to
a wall and get it to respond.

You know, he's got that
little bit of a Southern drawl

and everybody sort of likes him.

He's the,
"Oh, gosh darn, you won."

There was no risk
that somebody's gonna think,

"Well, this guy is an FBI agent,

and this is
an undercover operation."

I mean, nobody...

no FBI agent laughs
as much as this guy does.

I go, "Wow, this
really looks like there's...

it's had
a woman's touch here."

I mean, it was all
this plaid... just, this shit.

Which is probably why I did it.

And, you know, I said all
kinds of stuff, I was...

again, I was trying to,
you know, move this out,

make everybody seem
real comfortable

with uncomfortable things,
which is what I'm good at.

Tell us the story
about how you won

at the Monopoly game,
everything like that,

in your own words.

Okay.

Um...

day started out pretty peaceful.

It was a day off,

and I went to the beach
for a while.

I ended up actually
falling asleep at the beach.

And when I woke up,
the wind had come up

and I was covered with sand...

not a lot,
but a little bit of sand...

and I picked up my belongings,
and I headed down

to the water there
to kind of wash my legs off

with the sand,
and I was a little klutzy.

The "People" magazine...

and my towel
fell out of the backpack,

fell into the water,
and got all wet.

I ended up, uh...
throwing those away

on the way to the car,

and then after...

I was coming home,
I decided to stop and get

provisions for dinner.

So I stopped
at the McQuade's Supermarket

and picked up a few things,

and I had never got a chance
to read the magazine.

And they... there
it was right there

at the checkout stand,
so I bought one.

And when I got home,
I was leafing through it,

and we had
the McDonald's Monopoly game,

and it had instant
prize winners on it...

or they had the quick pick,
whatever you call 'em.

I don't know
what they're called.

Uh, and the first one
I peeled off, I believe,

was Pennsylvania Avenue.

And the second one I peeled off

was a million-dollar
instant prize winner,

and it was like,
"Wow, is this for real?"

And then I, uh...
followed the directions

and made the calls and talked
to the people, and, uh...

it was for real.

Amy's just used
to getting the story.

But for me,
I'm putting legs to that.

And he was mentioning some
grocery story, and so I go,

"Which one?
Is it right here?"

"Hey, can you take us there?"

He goes, "Sure."

You know, he's feeding
off the energy part.

No, I wasn't about to stop that.

That was great.
It's a field trip, right?

I'm getting calls,
"The fuck are you doing?"

"I mean, why are you... what?"
This is, like,

"Are you adlibbing?"
And I'd go, "Hey, Jan."

My camera guy, right?

Can you get this?"

"Yeah, I can get it."

Doug struck me as one
of the new breed of agents

who thinks outside
the box, if you will.

But he was gung-ho
from the get-go.

This is where I got
the, uh, "People" magazine.

And inside we had
the Monopoly game

with the instant
$1 million winner,

and it was great;
it's fantastic!

- Great!
- Got it, okay.

He's telling us how he won
the prize, all the BS.

His was a magazine-type
thing which, at the time

I didn't even know.
I'm looking over, I go,

"Really? I thought you
got this off the packages."

And Amy's like,
"Did you read any of that

shit I sent you?"

Right, and I go,
"Of course I did."

Which I may have glossed over.

So I go, "Hey, what'd
you do with the money?"

Why?
Because I want to go

seize that stuff, right?

And he's like,
"I'm buying a boat."

And so I go, "What name

would you have on
the back of your boat?"

And he was like,
"Ruthless Scoundrel."

One, two, three!

Thanks, McDonald's.

Hey!

So I'm reenacting
that, right, and I go,

"So, Michael,
you were on the beach?"

"Yes, and it's right here.
It's this beach."

And I go, "Really?
Take us to it."

And I didn't care what that
meant to my camera guy, right?

He's like, "Are you... fuck,
are you kidding me?

I gotta... the damn beach?"

There's always somebody

that could respond
tactically, if needed.

But if something went south,

between the time
something went south

and the time they got there...

Don't do anything stupid.

Doug, you know,
he was a professional,

but he also did
like to have fun.

So he loved to tease me

and kept me on my toes.

This is what
makes my fun meter go.

Amy's back there going,
"Look at these shoes I have,"

and I'm not looking
at shit like that.

I mean, "Take your high heels...
why are you wearing

high heels anyway?"

And she's like, "Are you..."

you know, she was
getting on to me about,

"Hey, can you plan
this better?"

But I didn't know.

Can you get enough sound

if he tells
the story one more time?

You need it?

- We could try it.
- Okay.

Anybody noticing you yet?

Not really.

Good.

When Doug's at the house,

it was a controlled environment.

When you're out
in the real world,

there's nothing controlled.

You're always a little worried

the operation and the case
could be compromised.

Uh, this is where I lost
my "People" magazine.

I'm glad that after
the beach I stopped

and picked up another one
because when I did,

I found the McDonald's
Monopoly Game,

$1 million instant prize winner.

- Great.
- Okay, good.

Obviously, you know,
this was Doug's very first

undercover, and so you'd
wanna try to keep him

under control, keep him sedated,

so to speak.

They don't make it easy.

So I'm like, "Man, I got plenty.

I got enough."

Can I do a couple
of artsy things,

okay, real quick?

Hey.

You know, he'd stand
there smiling, and you know,

you're doing
all this artsy stuff,

and then some kid ran up
and grabbed the check.

To run away with it.

Like, I'm gonna let
this evidence just walk?

No way.

And I'm trucking
down the beach...

And it's like,
"Dude, it's not real."

It was bad news.

That's not a good problem
to have,

being an undercover agent.

And this guy is hammered.

Fortunately, he's running, like,

in a zigzag,
so it's easy to catch.

This kid, he was, like,
full of sand in his mouth

and crap and I'm like,
"Dude..."

"I don't know what I'm gonna
do with all this sand."

And he's like,
"Man, I just saw, like,

"all those zeros and thought...

I'm just gonna go take it."

And I can't even remember
where he wandered off,

but he was out of there;
we never saw him again.

Sometimes on a case,

being lucky is better
than being good.

No Asics, no nothing,
and we still caught that dude,

of course, he was hammered,
and we were not.

And we did get the check back.

It worked great.
Amy was phenomenal.

And I'm like, "Man,
undercover is awesome."

Turned out it really
tickled our wire up.

Michael Hoover
would be on the phones

which is great,
because then we were listening

to that and recording it.

You know, again,
it got him comfortable.

It actually worked.
You know, all that works.

At that time,
I was here in Jacksonville

in the... what we call wire room.

We were listening in
for what we hoped to be

a telephone call
to this Uncle Jerry.

And immediately
there's a phone call

by Mr. Hoover to Mr. Glomb
down in South Florida.

We were up on
three or four phones.

One was this guy, Andrew Glomb.

I mean, Andrew Glomb was
the guy with a checkered past.

He had previously convicted
for some drug charges

on the federal side
with the DEA.

He had been in a drug
trafficking thing.

He was a fugitive for a while,
eventually got arrested,

and he did some time.

And so, Mr. Hoover
had called Mr. Glomb.

- Ring, ring.
- Ring, ring.

"Hello?"
"Yeah, Andy."

That's Andy Glomb.

"Andy, they were here.
They believed everything.

"Everything I told them
about the winning the ticket

on that 'People' magazine."

"And I was telling them,
'I did this, and I did that.'"

And at the very same time,
I'm on my cell phone

talking to Doug Mathews

and telling him,
"Listen to this."

The feeling from him
on the phone call was,

"Man, I got them snowed,
they bel..."

you know, it was that...
it was that...

I mean, it was perfect.

It's exactly what you're after.

He's talking, "Man,
you're not gonna believe it.

"This director asked
about the name of my boat

and I said,
'Ruthless Scoundrel.'"

And they're just laughing
on the phone,

how much... how funny that was
to them because they knew

they had lied and had stolen
this money from McDonald's.

In that call, effectively
what he's doing is confirming

beyond any doubt that,
you know, he didn't win it.

It just doesn't get
any better than that.

It's like high fives.

That was why you get up
on these wiretaps.

So we're hearing
how they did it.

At the time, we didn't
know how big this was.

We knew of some,
but we didn't know it all.

It was amazing to me
how little we did know.

The spider web of all...
like, we had this Uncle Jerry.

Everything was
very general, nebulous.

We still didn't know,
you got to remember, like,

we still didn't know
who this Jerry person was,

if there even was a Jerry.

So all of the newer agents,
we were on the wiretaps

to find out more about
the depths of this scheme.

Back then I was a new agent,

and my first assignment
when I was brought in

was to work the wire.

The Title III has to be
monitored full-time, 24/7.

You hear the phone call,
you grab your headset,

you put it on,
you listen to the call.

We're listening in the wire room

and I'm hearing, you know,
the name Uncle Jerry

thrown around on the phone.

"Uncle Jerry, Uncle Jerry.

You don't wanna make
Uncle Jerry upset."

Well, I do remember
clearly feeling like

I was in New York and I was
listening to a mobster

talking about running
his mafia empire,

some mafia don, 'cause that's
kind of how this guy came off.

So we had to find Uncle Jerry.

I mean, how do you do that?

We did an analysis

of phone records
from past winners.

You look for that common number.

We knew when they won
the prizes, what year,

and we could probably cord it
off to a month, so I think...

I think we backed up two
and went forward two.

And we went and pulled
the phone numbers coming in

and going out
for this period of time.

Lo and behold,
each of their phone numbers

were calling common numbers.

We saw the activity
heavy coming in right before

the prize was awarded
or claimed,

and then heavy right after it,
and then nothing.

And then none
of them were related;

they didn't know each other.

All were hitting that number.

All these phone calls
include one person...

Jerome Jacobson.

Also known as...

Jerry Jacobson.

The absolute head of security
for Simon Marketing.

There was a wide net
of individuals who were willing

to participate
in this fraud scheme.

It got really big, really fast.

There was one
nagging question mark...

Who is Uncle Jerry?

We were racking up
incredible evidence

and discovering new people.

We found out that there was
another Jerry involved in this.

He took this little,
small operation,

and made it huge.

As soon as I got that check,
things changed.

"You gonna ride with us,
and you gonna do what we say.

And you gonna do it right."

I'm not a dumb person,
but I did a dumb thing.

No one can stand in front
of a mirror and say

they've never done something...

that they wish
they could take back.

I'mma lay all my cards on
the table and tell everything.

We were just building
the puzzle from all the pieces.

We started finding
other middle-men.

The money got too big to not
take a bigger piece of that pie.

It could've been a possible hit
to get him out of the situation.

A little teardrop
came down my face.

I thought, "I'm never
gonna get out of this."