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Boston Calling: The Case of the Stolen Fortune Cookie Fortunes

The Case of the Stolen Fortune Cookie Fortunes

23/12/2017 GMT

BBC World Service - Boston Calling, The Case of the Stolen Fortune Cookie Fortunes

In the US every Chinese meal comes with fortune cookies. Their story is full of intrigue.

"Some men dream of fortunes. Others dream of cookies." This is a real fortune cookie fortune. It would be a prescient fortune for Yongsik Lee. He invented the fully automatic fortune cookie machine in the early 1980s and built a business on his invention. The Korean immigrant sold fortune cookie machines and fortunes to companies all over the US. It was a good business until one day, one of his employees stole his fortunes and his customers. We get to the bottom of a theft that forever changed Yongsik Lee's life. 

(Image: Fortune cookies on display at The Ritz Carlton in Miami Beach, Florida. Credit: Neilson Barnard/Getty Images)

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