He definitely peaked in 5th grade! We used to do that with quarters in pinball machines for free games. We taped a piece of thread to a quarter with scotch tape. Drop the quarter in the slot and carefully let it fall until it hit the wire that made the game counter. If it got stuck in the slot while you pulled it up and down to rack up games, just hold the coin return, pull the thread real hard and the quarter would fall down the return slot. My mom couldn’t figure out why her sewing thread and scotch tape kept disappearing! We were 12, LOL!
In the first episode of Futurama, Bender used the same technique in the suicide machine.
We used to do the 5 dollar bill tied to fishing line trick in the cafeteria in middle school.
Drop it and wait for a teacher to try and pick it up, then yank the string .
Hysterical!