March 14, 2005
Funny Money
The other day after walking the dogs I saw what looked like a piece of US currency next to our neighbor's fence. I dragged Angel and Jacqueline over to the fence, and collected several pieces of a twenty dollar bill. I remember reading somewhere that if you had at least two thirds of a bill you could turn it into the bank and get a replacement for it, so I gathered up my ripped up twenty and went to work taping it all back together. Here's the result:
I was so proud of my work that I showed it to my step-daughter, who quickly recognized it as counterfeit. She held it up to a light and showed me that the thread that runs through all twenty dollar bills was missing. While it was under that light I also saw what a sloppy fake it was, so I was a little disappointed that I spent all that time taping together twenty bucks that I wasn't going to be able to spend.
Sigh.
Teens Buy Drugs With Fake Cash
Monday, March 14, 2005
A trio of Florida wise guys are lucky to have been arrested.
That's because the jokers were allegedly printing funny money on a home laser printer — and then using it to pay drug dealers.
Macclenny, Fla., residents Jeremy Randall Johnson, 32, and Kyle David Duncan and Adam Mallett, both 17, were charged last month with felony counterfeiting charges, said Chuck Brannan, chief investigator for the Baker County Sheriff's Office (search).
Brannan said Friday the teenagers would print about $20 to $30 at a time — in $1, $5 and $10 bills — on a Hewlett-Packard combination scanner/laser printer (search) in one boy's family kitchen.
They'd then use the phony moolah to buy drugs from street dealers, he said. The fake bills started showing up in local stores on Feb. 2.
By the time of the trio's arrests Feb. 17, Brannan said, "there had been some threats from drug dealers."
I wondered about that while I was picking up the pieces of this bill. I had found a tiny zip-lock baggie with a crystal like powder in it just a few weeks prior.
Posted by: Jeff at March 15, 2005 7:23 AMwow... Using fake money to buy drugs from drug dealers seems like a fast way to get killed.
It would never have occured to me that the money was fake either Jeff. I always thought that fake money was very rare. If you tried to take it to a bank to cash it in, I wonder if you would have gotten in trouble?
Posted by: Bill at March 15, 2005 12:21 PM