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Arts and Entertainment

Local Biz Gives Caine's Arcade a Real Pinball Machine

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The owners of Echo Park's Pins & Needles were so taken by "Caine's Arcade" that they've reportedly gifted the cardboard-cutting wonderboy Caine Monroy his very own pinball machine, worth an estimated $4,000.

Monroy, who probably never expected to see his name on the virtual pages of TMZ, was spotted at the shop last night, "where he played on a real-life pinball machine for the first time in his life."

Pins and Needles, profiled just last fall by the L.A. Times, is a part-shop, part-pinball playing club, part-hangout run by Molly Atkinson and her boyfriend, Keith Elwin, the world's top-ranking pinball player.

Monroy met Elwin at the store last night, and Atkinson offered the East L.A. 9-year-old a machine all of his own. TMZ says the boy hasn't picked out his machine yet, but that the best in the shop are worth upwards of $4,000.

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