Police investigate woman who tried to spend fake bills

Counterfeit bills have been a frequent problem lately.
By JEANNE STARMACK
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
AUSTINTOWN -- Township police are investigating how a woman got 41 counterfeit $20 bills, which they found after she tried to spend three of them at the BP gas station at 890 Canfield-Niles Road.
The woman, 29, whose last known address was in Girard, told police after her arrest that a man whose real name she doesn't know gave her the bills to hold, and she didn't realize they were fake when she tried to spend them.
Counterfeit bills have been popping up frequently for months in the township, most recently at a rate of almost one every day.
Charges pending
Charges of criminal simulation are pending against the woman as an investigation continues. Police took her to Mahoning County court here Monday after her arrest on a warrant for failure to appear on three criminal trespassing charges from April, September and October this year. She was charged with trespassing at the TA Travel Center truck lot on Seventy Six Drive.
She was fined $15 in each case, ordered to pay $50 for three bench warrants, and ordered to pay $65 in court costs, according to a clerk at the court. The fines were low because she is indigent, the clerk said.
She was given three consecutive 30-day jail sentences, which were suspended, and 24 months' probation. She was also told to cooperate fully with the township police department.
Detective Lt. Robert Schaeffer said he hopes she'll cooperate.
Schaeffer said it's hard to say if the woman will lead the department to a significant source of counterfeit bills. People are producing them on their home computers, he said.
"Hopefully she'll help. This is one of the better leads we've had. Hopefully she found a source, or at least close to it."
Reported by clerk
The woman was arrested Monday about 4:30 p.m. after a clerk at the BP gave three counterfeit bills to an officer who happened to be in the parking lot at the gas station, telling him a woman had just tried to spend them and then fled the store.
She had tried to pay for a bottle of soda with a twenty that the clerk identified as fake with a special pen. When told the bill was fake, she tried to pay with another twenty. It too was fake, and she tried to pay again with another. When told it was also fake, the woman asked for the bills back, but clerks refused to give them to her, according to the police report.
The woman went to the Taco Bell on state Route 46, where police found her.
At the police station, the woman said an acquaintance dropped her off at the BP after giving her a ride to Austintown. When he saw the officer in the parking lot, he got nervous and gave her a large wad of money, telling her to hold it for him, the police report said. He left while the woman was in the gas station restroom, the report said.
Gave her the money
She said she had bought drugs from the man before, and she thought the money was just drug money that he was afraid the officer would take from him if he were stopped, the report said.
She told police she has heard that the man, who she said lives in Youngstown, is making money at his house and using it in drug deals.