Man Mines Midtown New York Sidewalks 183
43-year-old Raffi Stepanian makes money searching New York City streets, but it's not loose change or soda cans he's looking for, it's gold. Stepanian says he can make almost $1000 a week scouring the diamond district's streets for bits of gold, platinum, and precious gems. "Material falls off clothes, on the bottom of shoes, it drops off jewelry, and it falls in the dirt and sticks to the gum on the street. The percentage of gold out here on the street is greater than the amount of gold you would find in a mine . . . It comes close to a mother lode because in the street, you're picking up gold left by the industry," he says.
There are no cats in America (Score:2, Funny)
and the streets are paved with gold?
And now that it's all over the internet (Score:3)
Everyone else will start doing it too, and he'll have to go back to his day job.
Re:And now that it's all over the internet (Score:5, Insightful)
Everyone else will start doing it too, and he'll have to go back to his day job.
You're missing the plan, man. He's going to sell people the tools to do street mining. After that, he sits back in fat city.
Re:And now that it's all over the internet (Score:4, Insightful)
Everyone else will start doing it too, and he'll have to go back to his day job.
You're missing the plan, man. He's going to sell people the tools to do street mining. After that, he sits back in fat city.
Then comes the book.
Then comes the TV show.
Yep, he's on Easy Street, in more ways than one.
just be careful of claim jumpers.
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Then came the lawyers then came the rules
Then came the trains and the trucks with their load
And the dirty old track was the telegraph road
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New York is one of the safest places on the planet.
Crime is at historic lows since they started keeping records.
Remove your head from your ass.
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BMO
Re: Clarification (Score:2)
>Crime is at historic lows since they started keeping records
I said that and it's complete nonsense, because obviously records were kept going all the way back to New Amsterdam.
I really meant to say "Since statistics have been published" and that would be 1963 - nearly 50 years ago.
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BMO
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BMO, just look at his sig. Everything you need to know about DigiShaman is in that sig,
OF COURSE he thinks NYC is a dangerous pesthole, full of dangerous criminals.
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Oh god, I didn't think they existed.
I heard about them in legends. I thought they were just sockpuppets.
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BMO
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I'm assuming that you're referring to those dangerous hasidem gangs that roam the diamond district, forcing everyone to buy retail?
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Truth in history (or at least, mythical history). Supposedly nobody made more money during the gold rush years than the shovel makers.
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Truth in history (or at least, mythical history). Supposedly nobody made more money during the gold rush years than the shovel makers.
Looking over the settlement of California, the gold rush populated the state - failed or retired prospectors built ranches, planted orchards, built toll roads, drove stage coaches, built fishing fleets, etc. Without the Gold Rush California may not have developed anywhere near as much as it has.
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Our weather and fertile farmland takes issue with that - it would have developed just as much, but perhaps just not as quickly.
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That's what I used to think, too. But it turns out, most of California's present (huge) population arrived a lot later [wikipedia.org].
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Re:And now that it's all over the internet (Score:4, Funny)
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That isn't come on knowledge.
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What do you mean? The website for Levi Strauss and Company claims they have a 150 year history, and says the founder was Levi Strauss. It also has this little warning for people researching the company:
But be careful: there are a lot of myths about our company and our jeans in cyberspace, and you shouldn’t rely on the Internet for historical research.
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Not sure that warning is all that accurate, come to think of it. Someone told me not to trust the internet for information like that.
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They don't make any jeans. They just order them and have them labeled.
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Levy's is not still with us today.
Well knock-off brands usually don't last that long. Levi Struss on the other hand is still around.
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Only as a brand, they don't make jeans.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/2873672/Levi-Strauss-shuts-down-last-factories-in-America.html [telegraph.co.uk]
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...armed with tweezers and a butter knife
I doubt that there's much money in that.
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You're missing the plan, man. He's going to sell people the tools to do street mining. After that, he sits back in fat city.
You mean a styrofoam cup and a butter knife?
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Yeah seems like the worst thing in the world he could do is let people know about this...
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Everyone else will start doing it too, and he'll have to go back to his day job.
I think the problem is living in NYC on "less than $1000 / wk" is probably physically impossible unless you eat rats and live in a homeless shelter. Or you're playing games like claiming you only get $20K of income but you're getting $50K of student loans / grants / scholarships so you're really spending $70K/yr ...
Where I live, 50K will get you a lifestyle of roughly "small, older house" or a Very deluxe apartment, decent mid-level new-ish car or brand new cheapie, somewhat above average day to day grocer
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Are you a new yorker? Because then your standard is quite skewed. My wife's family is all in NYC, and I lived in Montreal and in the Boston area, and a 1400$ apartment with the specs you mentionnd in NYC, by my standards, is totally unacceptable. Total dump in garbage areas.
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Agreed. In my small hometown, the crappiest area is still better than NYC's "really nice location", at least in my eyes. Also, my wife can walk to the party store down the street at night without needing to carry a small arsenal to defend herself with.
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Maybe not in Manhattan, but you can find places in the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens for those prices. Right now Long Island City and Astoria as well as Greenpoint will have those types of offerings.
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I'm not debating if its doable or not. I'm saying it sucks. Hard.
My mother in law's 2 bedroom in a co-op is worth well over 600-700 grands (I forget exactly, so give or take 50k), and I would NOT live in it. Thats in Queens.
My new apartment in Cambridge, MA, in porter square at 1400$/month is borderline acceptable.
And my old apartment (I just recently moved) in Laval, Quebec, 25 minutes from downtown montreal using public transportation was 445$/month (2 bedroom). Its a bit cheaper than average because I ha
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$50,000, with a minimum of 20% tax rate ends up being $3,333/mo. That's 41% of your income, which is a completely fucking ludicrous proportion of your income to spend on housing.
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Tax rate? You seriously think he's filing income taxes from sifting trash from the gutters? Plus, he lives in Queens. He can probably afford a decent 1BR on what he makes...
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He will be now. I guarantee the IRS (as well as NYS and NYC officials) will be looking into this. Income doesn't have to be money, so the relevant tax authorities would be fully within their rights to go after him, and he's just given his name and location directly to them!
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I think you overestimate the IRS's competence as well as motivation for going after someone who is effectively a high-end dumpster diver :)
But regardless of the tax consequences, after this article his Diamond District gold mining days are numbered. As a few posters have pointed out, if you strike a gold vein the LAST thing you want to do is tell everyone where it is! (especially if it's on land you don't own...)
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Not that I don't agree with you that 50k in NYC is doable. It certainly is and MANY of the people who live there do it with less than that.
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Not needing a car is not equivalent to not needing to travel.What, the buses and subway are free in NY now?
Yup. At least they are compared to needing a car. Many people continually pay a car payment, the average of which is around $500/mo [msn.com]. Add in $75/mo for basic insurance, then money for gas, tires, maintenance, air fresheners, &c, and you're easily up around $25/day, 7 days a week.
Buses cost money. But not that much money.
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Or if you live a hundred miles north for that money you can probably find yourself a 1500+ square foot 3 bedroom house with land, in a decent location and a Car. For us Upstaters you are talking a quality of life that someone on welfare lives like.
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Even in Manhattan, $1k/week is pretty much the median income: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Manhattan#Household_income [wikipedia.org]
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Everyone else will start doing it too, and he'll have to go back to his day job.
Which is why it's a bogus story. There's no pot of gold on New York streets. Only in a con man's mind. Yeesh.
Talking about mining... (Score:4, Funny)
Who else thought this would be more along the lines of about land-mines or claymores? It would at least be a more interesting story...
Also much like old-fashioned gold mining, once others start doing it he can't make as much money doing it anymore
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Or at least blowing up sidewalks to get to the gold. Taking a pickaxe to the ashpalt right in the middle of traffic. There's much more efficient ways at mining than what he's doing.
One man's more efficient way of mining is another's more fun way of mining.
Boom Town (Score:5, Funny)
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It's about time! 42nd Street peep shows, here we go again!
The man has no idea.... (Score:3)
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In a production-level mine, you will get a lot more minerals out of it than a thousand bucks per week.
Considering how much investment he's had to make in equipment and payroll, I'd say he's ahead of the cost curve.
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You're thinking of an open pit mine. Not all, or even most mines are like that. Some have a vertical shaft going straight down to where the seam of ore is, others have slanting shafts into the sides of mountains or hills that you can walk down. As an example, if the mine in Chile you mentioned had been an open pit, the miners either wouldn't have been trapped, or if they were, it wouldn't have been for anywhere near as long.
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The amount he claims to find in a week might perhaps be equivalent to what you could get out a production level mine in a single day, if things were running very very slowly.
"Can make" (Score:3)
Oh, "Can make". I thought he was averaging that at first.
No, sometimes he almost makes $1000 (in the video, that's "over $800")... Other times, maybe he makes nothing? We don't know.
Mines ? (Score:3)
My first thought was IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devices like Iraq and Afghanistan )
Bull (Score:2)
I walk on this street going to work, 47th between 5th and 6th. There is no way this guy is getting the equivalent of half an ounce of gold per week from the street. Its not like you look down and see flakes or anything. Insanity.
-molo
Re:Bull (Score:5, Funny)
Tomorrow they'll post an article about a sysadmin at a big company clearing out old home directories and supplementing his income by finding bitcoins.
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Based on what experience?
How about you spend amonth doing it? or just following him around? No, that would be data, and it's much better to assume that even though you aren't specifically looking, clearly you would see things you aren't looking for in a manner that's least efficient for searching*.
The probability that, on average and in that area, you can get a grand a month isn't really that bad.
*granted, I am assuming you walk in a manner efficient for getting from A to B and not a systematic grid search.
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Clever ploy... (Score:2)
Someone in the city's administration needed to clean the streets and sidewalks but ALSO save money, perhaps?
Diamonds On The Soles Of Her Shoes (Score:2)
"People say I'm crazy
I got diamonds on the soles of my shoes
Well that's one way to lose
These walking blues
Diamonds on the soles of your shoes"
Musical goatse? (Score:2)
Oh great, now I have the Paul Simon song stuck in my head:
Hmm... that must be annoying. Let me replace it with something else:-
;-)
"Here's a little song I wrote,
You might want to sing it note for note,
Don't worry,
Be happy."
Oh, that's okay... not at all, don't mention it!
NY, there is no such thing as "finder is keeper" (Score:2)
NY Personal Property Law Article 7-B section 252, anything over value of 20 dollars must be reported and file title to police. Fail to do so carries misdemeanor charge. If not claimed by owner, the property goes to the finder, only after he/she files for title of that property.
I assume, this guy will be hit with misdemeanor charge pretty soon.
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why? he finds lots of piece individually worth less the 20 dollars.
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Or each piece he finds isn't worth much, but the total of it all combined over a week is.
So each piece may only be worth $2, but he finds 400 of them, bringing the total to $800. So I doubt that personal property law would apply
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So each piece may only be worth $2, but he finds 400 of them, bringing the total to $800. So I doubt that personal property law would apply
Er... why would you think that? If we only have the OP's reporting of the law to go on (and it's correct) then in the absence of any law or regulation that would tie together otherwise unrelated incidences of lost-and-found (i.e. lost by different people) what legal basis would there be for being able to "add them up" like that instead of treating them separately? None, as far as I can see.
Rule 1 about find a gold vein (Score:4, Insightful)
Shut 'ur trap.
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Denver capitol gold dome, too (Score:2)
The capitol building of Denver has the dome covered with 200 ounces of 24 carat gold, and it needs replacing about every 40 years. That means it's losing several ounces per year, and most all of it is coming off in rainwater that ends up dumping through the drainage spouts down the sides. People tried to collect it, like this guy. I've been told, but can't find an online reference, that collecting rainwater from the Capitol Building was made illegal to prevent mayhem, so now it goes down the sewer.
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True in some places in Colorado things like rain barrels are illegal. Which doesn't make much sense to me at all but there you go.
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True in some places in Colorado things like rain barrels are illegal. Which doesn't make much sense to me at all but there you go.
It's not that they're illegal per se. It's that in arid states, water rights are more than 100% used, and first in time of use gets first priority, meaning the people who have water rights older than yours, get to use their entire allotment of water before you get to use any. Collecting rainwater means someone else doesn't get their full allotment. As it turns out, California is one of the major water rights holders, so it's not because the guy down the street is complaining that you can't retain the wat
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The capitol building of Denver has the dome covered with 200 ounces of 24 carat gold, and it needs replacing about every 40 years. That means it's losing several ounces per year, and most all of it is coming off in rainwater that ends up dumping through the drainage spouts down the sides. People tried to collect it, like this guy. I've been told, but can't find an online reference, that collecting rainwater from the Capitol Building was made illegal to prevent mayhem, so now it goes down the sewer.
Does it make gold bricks?
That's right you bunch of foreigners! (Score:2)
This article is from the New York Post (Score:2)
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Does it really matter? Unless you're planning on sweeping the streets for gold yourself, nobody cares whether the story is true or not.
In tonight's news... (Score:2)
NY City code enforcement officer fines man for mining gold without a permit. The city's spokesman commented, "If we're going to hold grade-school girls with lemonade stands to our stringent codes, we can't rightly overlook this guy, can we?" The mayor could not be reached for comment.
Not much good... (Score:2)
47th street between 6th and 5th ave's (Score:2)
That's the Diamond district where there are lots of sweat shops. My father worked for several large jewelry firms as a diamond setter. The back rooms where the artisans worked wasn't air conditioned during the summer and the large windows were left open (they were the awning type that opened with small slats so you couldn't really jump or fall out of an open window). Many of the work benches were right up against the window, and I could believe that some small stuff would fall to the street now and then.
Per the usual (Score:2)
OK, not really seeing why this is a Slashdot story (Score:2)
or did we get rid of the "news for nerds, stuff that matters" part?
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Me too. Might want to reconsider the wording of that headline.
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Re:Mining is dangerous. (Score:4, Insightful)
Correction: "*Refining gold ore and other precious metal ores* is a filthy job dripping with toxic chemicals: arsenic, cyanide, lead, mercury, etc." He's not doing any of that. He's literally just picking already refined metal up off the street. While he might be at hazard to whatever filth he has to brush off the metal, he's not not dealing with a large amount of toxic chemicals.
Re:Mining is dangerous. (Score:4, Interesting)
Do not feed the trolls.
This is a hardcore quack fucker just trying to advertise here.
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Although this is the first time I've seen him post without spouting any chiropractic terminology.
Not saying he's not a troll, or even that he's not trolling in this case... but could this be the advent of a kinder, subtler "Dr." Bob troll?
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you don't find "-1 funny" to be even slightly amusing?
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It'll be like a tourist attraction with this dude as the guide. Go to 47th street and look for gold in the gutter while your gf looks at shoes and necklaces or whatever.
Foraging would have been a better word, then (Score:2)
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No, you see, gems with subluxations are only valuable if, phrenologically speaking, you lump them together underneath a pyramid, where they can infuse your chi with healing and, um, inner serenity. And stuff.
Re:Mining is dangerous. (Score:5, Interesting)
Actually, unlike gold (which does require large amounts of toxic chemicals to refine), aluminum isn't refined chemically; instead, it takes large amounts of electricity (which is why you didn't have aluminum production until the 20th century).
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Reference is Galaxy Quest. Their Star Trek spoof uses Beryllium spheres.
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Don't forget cryolite, which is apparently toxic to insects (I don't know about humans).
And people said high school chemistry would never come in handy!
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Am I the only one who thought of laying explosives, not extracting minerals, when he saw the word "mines?"
Nope.
That makes at least three of us.
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Man used to mine streets of NYC for $1,000 a week until he decided to tell his story to a reporter and droves of unemployed new yorkers decided to get in on the action themselves.
Get off my mine.
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Watt? Maui spell ink is purr fact. Yew justice two critic all, hat's awl. Bee nites two udders, wound and hew?