Fake bills passed at various stores

More businesses in the area have seen counterfeit money passing through.

STAFF REPORT

BOARDMAN — Township police are looking for someone who managed to slip counterfeit $100 bills by employees at two local movie theaters.

The manager at Cinemark Tinseltown USA on Market Street said he called police about 5:30 p.m. Sunday after noticing a $100 bill in the cash drawer that looked unusual.

He told police he held the bill up to the light and saw the president’s likeness was Abraham Lincoln, not Benjamin Franklin.

The manager said he talked to the cashier who accepted the money and was told the bill passed the counterfeit pen test. She said only two people paid with $100 bills that evening.

Police inspected the bill and discovered it had been bleached and reprinted to look like a $100, but the security strip was still intact.

Detective Ben Switka said it would be very easy for the average person to mistake the bills, especially if he or she were in a hurry and the money passed the counterfeit pen test.

Switka said more and more businesses in the area have seen counterfeit money passing through.

“They seem to be hitting businesses that are busy at certain times,” he said.

Recently, businesses such as Movies 8, Target and Sam’s Club have fallen victim to counterfeits. The manager at Movies 8 on Boardman-Poland Road told police a fake $100 bill was discovered at her store on the same day as the one at Tinseltown.

The second bill was inspected and determined to be identical to the one used at Tinseltown, police said.

The person who paid with the fake bill at Movies 8 matched the description of one patron who paid with a $100 bill at Tinseltown, according to a police report.

Switka said most employees are trained to use the counterfeit pen on any questionable bill. A yellow mark is supposed to indicate authenticity.

He said sometimes the smaller bills look so real a pen isn’t even used.

“I actually took a $10 bill out of my pocket, and it was close, it was very close to a fake,” Switka said. “This one was really good. It didn’t have the watermark or pass the pen test, but how many people will actually check a $10 bill?”

Switka said the investigation continues.