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Counterfeit bills turning up
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Stores warned after 2 take in phony money Counterfeit money has turned up twice in the past week at Crescent City stores, and police are asking local businesses to be on the lookout for fake bills. On Tuesday, two counterfeit $50 bills were passed at Discount Liquors on Ninth Street. On Wednesday, a fake $100 bill was reported at the Patriot Gas Station on U.S. Highway 101. “Recently we’ve had a few, but not as many as they printed in the past,” said Detective Keith Doyle on Thursday. Larger amounts of counterfeit money turned up during a two-week period February of last year, and last September a police-run DUI checkpoint confiscated $850 in counterfeit bills during a pullover that resulted in three arrests. “A lot of times they come in waves,” said Doyle. Asked if he expects more fake bills to turn up in the next few weeks, he said, “absolutely.” The detective said counterfeiters are more common now because anyone with a computer, scanner and printer can commit the crime. “Anybody can scan something into the computer,” he said. Doyle said counterfeiters are getting more sophisticated in their use of paper. “One was printed on a bleached out $5 bill,” said Doyle about the confiscated counterfeit $100. “And I could tell by the stripe.” He said the easiest and most reliable way to detect phony cash is by looking for the plastic strip imprinted in $5-$100 bills. Doyle said the vertical strip is imprinted on different locations on each denomination, except for the $1 bill, which has no strip. Most counterfeit cash has no strip. Doyle said $1 bills are most often bleached out and then used as the paper to print larger denominations. He said $5 bills are most commonly bleached to be printed with $20-100 denominations. Doyle said the fake money is most often not noticed when it is spent — most of the time a bank will report it long after the transaction was made. “A lot of it goes into the banks before it comes to our attention,” said Doyle. He said the common occurrence of clerks not checking larger bills occurs because thieves find a busy store where the clerks are trying to help customers as fast as possible. Doyle said suspects target mini-marts, gas stations and busy grocery stores most often. |
