Cut me In

You would hate to think that the man who invented the Double Meat Whopper couldn't afford to have one for lunch, or that whoever came up with the Uber ride-hailing service had to walk everywhere for lack of dough.

But John Spinello, 77, of Bloomingdale, Illinois, invented that "Operation" game in the early 60s when he was an engineering student at the U of Illinois.  He came up with the idea when he recalled sticking a pin into an electrical outlet as a child and getting a shock.

So I guess he was shocked again when he saw millions of those games being sold at Toys "R" Costly, and he didn't see a nickel of it all, because he sold his invention to a guy for a quick $500.

And that guy was a smooth operator, who took the whole shebang to Milton Bradley and made a bundle from it.  And as the years went by, Spinello (left) went into the warehouse business, but that went toes up during the recession.

And then he needed dental surgery - $25,000 worth of it.

Things looked bleak until Peggy Brown and Tim Walsh, who are both friends of Spinello and fellow game inventors as well, put on a fundraiser for him through a crowd funding site.  

"I think assumptions are made that inventors make a lot of money off these kinds of things and in this case, it's just really not so," said Brown, of Milwaukee.

Happy Ending Dep't: They raised more than enough to take care of Mr Spinello's choppers.

Prediction Dep't:  The man or woman who invented crowd funding websites will never need a fundraiser put on for him or her.

I mean, can you just imagine the irony?