Patent ID: 7267216

Claim:
A coin-operated vending machine provided with anti-theft protection, comprising: (a) a head adapted to store items of merchandise and dispense a preset number of the items at a time therefrom; (b) a housing including an upper body having an outer wall defining an interior compartment open at upper and lower ends of said outer wall of said upper body and adapted to removably support said head on said upper end, and a lower base defining an interior cavity and having an open top adapted to removably support said upper body thereon; (c) a coin box disposed in said interior cavity of said lower base; (d) a first lock operable to permit removal and return of said coin box from and to said lower base; (e) a coin-actuated mechanism mounted on said upper body and operable after deposit of at least one coin to cause dispensing of items from said head and ejection of the coin to said coin box in said lower base; (f) a plurality of fastening elements disposed in said interior cavity of said lower base and said interior compartment of said upper body and adapted to fasten said lower base to said upper body, said lower base having a plurality of openings defined in a bottom thereof for allowing insertion of a tool, when said coin box is removed from said lower base, from exteriorly of said bottom of said lower base through said openings to reach and engage selected ones of said elements to fasten said lower base to said upper body such that access by the tool through said openings to said selected ones of said elements, and thus unfastening of said lower base from said upper body, cannot be reached and is thus blocked when said coin box is disposed in said interior cavity of said lower base; and (g) a transverse wall disposed across said interior compartment of said upper body, spaced from both said upper and lower open ends of said upper body, and attached from below and at a periphery of said transverse wall to said outer wall of said upper body such that said transverse wall blocks off access to said coin box in said interior cavity of said lower base by anyone reaching through said interior compartment of said upper body during when said head is removed from said upper body and such that said transverse wall cannot be detached from said upper body from above said transverse wall.