Law enforcement eyes influx of 'funny money'
By Ethan Smith
Published in News on July 20, 2017 9:55 PM
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Police say an increase in counterfeit bills has been reported in circulation around Wayne County over the last six months.
Local police say they do not know where the counterfeit money circulating around Wayne County is coming from, though reports of it have spiked in the past six months.
The fake currency often has "Motion Picture Use Only" or "Asian" symbols on it, police said, and people have increasingly been trying to pass it off as real money as of late.
"That's been over the last six months," said Maj. Anthony Carmon, head of the Goldsboro Police Department's Investigative Services. "(Financial crimes investigators) have noticed a steady increase in reported recovery of counterfeit bills."
Carmon said that while police do not definitively know where this batch of counterfeit money is coming from, they do have some ideas.
"There are a couple of working theories, but as far as that -- the motion picture money -- they don't know how that got in the area," Carmon said.
Carmon said police do not know of anyone trying to pass the counterfeit money at any local banks, only businesses.
Reports of "Motion Picture Use Only" money began rising in December 2016, when it made its way into Mount Olive.
From there, reports started trickling in from other places in Wayne County throughout this year, with several counterfeit money arrests being made this month.
While it has not been used at banks, there have been several reports of people trying to pass it at local businesses.
Maj. Tom Effler with the Wayne County Sheriff's Office said the agency had been taking an increased number of counterfeit currency reports in the past several weeks.
He did not know if the fake money had the same demarcations on it as the counterfeit bills city police have seen.
"Most of the time what happens is they try to pass it in a store, and the store catches it and calls us," Effler said. "Sometimes the people are innocent victims, sometimes they aren't."
Authorities say anyone who notices counterfeit money being passed should call the police.