Fake money becomes a problem for Mount Olive businesses
By Brandon Davis
Published in News on December 14, 2016 9:57 AM
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News-Argus/BRANDON DAVIS
Jan Hughes, manager of the Friendly Mart, looks at the two fake $20 bills someone tried to use in her store.
MOUNT OLIVE -- Fake money entered Mount Olive three months ago, and local businesses and the police are ready to stop it.
The counterfeit money, which looks real from a distance, reads "for motion picture use only" at the top of both sides. The color of the money still looks the same, but a detector pen can identify the bill as real or fake.
Jan Hughes, manager of the Friendly Mart at 1015 S. Breazeale Ave., said former employee Cornell Smith worked one night in September during the gas shortage when a man slid a $20 bill on the counter to pay for gas and then left the store.
Smith noticed something different.
She said Smith became busy and did not check the money at first, but as Smith waited for customers to swipe cards or pull cash out of wallets, he marked the suspicious money. The mark turned black instead of yellow as it would on real money.
Ms. Hughes said the man then re-entered minutes later with another fake $20 bill.
Smith confronted the man about the two fake bills, but the man took off running from the store, she said.
"You can look at them and tell. You can feel them and tell they're not real," Ms. Hughes said. "My boy (Smith) was pretty sharp."
She pinned the two bills to a bulletin board in her office.
Ms. Hughes said she and store employees mark every bill used in the store from now on. She said the marking process has taken up valuable time, but it prevents potential fake money from going into the register.
"They're pretty slick," she said. "They even have $100 bills that are the same way."
Police Chief Tommy Brown said the fake money has hit Domino's Pizza and a beauty supply store as well, and he said the money comes in $10, $20 and $100 bills.
Brown said the money is used in movies and television shows, but he said the police department is investigating how the money ended up in Mount Olive.
"What we've tried to determine is if it's someone getting it from the internet or someone has a connection with someone in the motion picture industry," Brown said.
"We're still in the process of trying to determine that."
Brown's concern centers around local business owners and law-abiding citizens.
He said business owners can deposit the fake money at a bank, but the bank will not give the business credit for the money.
"Ultimately, if a business takes it, they're the ones out of the money," Brown said. "And the law-abiding citizen, that may get their hands on it that may not realize it until something like that happens, they're out of the money as well."
Brown said a person who knowingly uses the fake money to purchase something and is arrested will be charged with obtaining property by false pretense.
"You're hurting people," Ms. Hughes said. "It's aggravating, and it needs to be stopped. I wish it could be stopped, but it'll probably go on forever."