His intent was the same as that of hundreds, thousands?, of CT followers in finding a coin worth keeping. No different than the old practice of searching a line of pay phones or vending machines coin returns in a terminal.
Walking by on chance and getting coins is one thing. Waiting, watching and lurking to get coins from an old woman that needed assistance is quite the opposite. It's very sad that people act this way.
In all honesty from how he described it sounds like that is what he did. Post number 55 he even mentioned pocketing it and getting out the door. Reject bins are fair game but it is creepy if you lurk someone for a few cents from it