COUNTERFEITING Fake bills crop up, keep cops probing

Five attempts to pass counterfeit money have been made in recent days.
Police in Girard and Austintown are investigating numerous attempts to pass counterfeit money.
According to Girard police reports, two women went to A-1 Bail Bonding on State Street Monday to get bail for two people who had been arrested in East Liverpool. The women, reports said, brought $8,000 with them to the bail bonding office.
An employee at the company, reports say, did not like the feel of some of the bills in the stack of money and called police. Police determined that 16 of the $50 bills in the stack of cash were counterfeit.
Arrested
Police arrested Crystal Lynn Giles, 21, Locust Street, Aliquippa, Pa., and Ashley Lauren McDonald, 24, Eutaw Drive, East Liverpool.
In another incident, police said a man went to the McQuaid's Gas Station on State Street Monday and tried to pay for $5 worth of gas with a fake $50 bill. Reports say the man took the bill back and left the store when the gas station employee tried to check its authenticity. No arrest was made.
In the third case, police said a man pulled up to the drive-through window at Burger King on State Street Sunday and handed an employee a $50 bill to pay for food. The man drove off when the bill was handed to a manager to be checked.
Reports say the bill was determined to be fake. The same man, reports say, had paid for food with a fake $20 earlier that same day.
Police confiscated all the fake bills.
More counterfeit money turned up in Austintown Township over the weekend.
Six previous cases
Police have investigated six previous cases of counterfeit bills' being passed at businesses since Sept. 2.
They were called to Wal-Mart on Mahoning Avenue on Saturday when a man tried to pay for items with money that included three fake $20 bills, a police report said.
The man told police he had paid his cell phone bill at Interstate Connections at 5440 Seventy-Six Dr. He said the counterfeit bills were part of his change from that business.
Township police went to Interstate Connections and found another phony $20 in the cash drawer, the report said.
Detective Lt. Robert Schaeffer said there's no evidence linking the newest case to any of the previous ones. Two of the four fake $20 bills found Saturday had the same serial numbers, he said.