ran into this a few times. The machines (in a court of law) become the property of the store owner. He decides what to do with them. After getting the store owners approval, I have drilled the locks out and gave him the money inside. I then have taken the equipment, cleaned it up and sold it. Gave the money to him again. Then I have put my equipment in and started operating..Only have gone through this type of effort if I believe the location is a winner. Kid high traffic location..good luck

Would you ever consider keeping the equipment? They look like decent machines, just need to be cleaned up a bit.

Could you just have a locksmith figure out what key it takes and make one for you? It may be easier and cheaper in the long run. You might also want to contact the manufacturer, they may only use a small number of lock configurations, they may be able to help you narrow it down to a specific key.

Well, my investigation into the machines continues. The machines are Northwesterns, which from what I have read on this board are a highly reputable machine. There is an old sticker on one of the machines that is in pretty bad shape. The sticker has a 1-800 number on it, and below the 800 number is part of a regular telephone number that has been scraped off. The 800 number took me to an operator who asked me for a PIN code, which I told her I didn't have. She refused to offer any further assistance. The area code for the partial regular telephone number is 507, which I googled and found to be in the Rochester, MN area (quite a distance from where I live, Iowa). I called directory assistance in Rochester and they couldn't find a business listed by the name that was on the sticker. So, I'm guessing the sticker is from a previous owner and was never removed when the current owner purchased the machine.

I called the store manager this morning and asked him if he could tell me who owns the machines. He couldn't find any information about them and told me he has never seen anyone come in to service the machines. He's going to do some more research and call me back if he finds any information.

Does anyone know if there are laws about abandoned machines? If these machines have been abandoned for a certain period of time, can I just claim them as mine and start using them?

if the machines have a sticker on them with the owner's info, call and tell the owner you are interested in vending and would like to buy his machines. make sure you don't overpay.

if there is no sticker, ask the manager for the vendor's contact info.

there is nothing wrong with this if the guy wanted the route he would be taking care of the machines! he might be thrilled to hear from you and have you take the machines off his hands! but if he wants too much for them, pass. he may call you back a day, week, or month later and offer you a lower price after he thinks about it a bit.

Thanks, that sounds like good advice.

Yeah, after speaking with the Vendstar people on the phone, I agree they are not a good machine to spend my money on. I'd hate to buy a machine and a few months down the road have a coin mechanism break or something and not be able to do anything about it. I've seen on this board that Beavers, Oaks, and Northwests all have a good reputation. I'll guess I'll just have to keep my eyes and ears open for some used ones to come up for sale.