Man Makes $45K/Year On Discarded Betting Slips

There's an interesting article in the New York Times this morning about a guy who claims to make $45,000 a year by rummaging through discarded betting slips at a Manhattan off-track betting parlor and finding winning tickets. He's apparently not alone. There's even a name for people like him: "stoopers." It's amazing to me that he can make a living doing this, even if I am sceptical about the $45K a year claim. (That sounds to me like one great day annualized.) It's still drudgery, whatever he earns. ("He spends more than 10 hours a day there, feeding thousands of discarded betting slips through a ticket scanner in a never-ending search for someone else’s lost treasure.") Nobody rides for free, as they say. Would it surprise you at all to learn that he's 57 years old, but has a ponytail?

You can read the article at this address: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/08/sports/08otb.html.