Money doesn’t grow on trees, but a series of counterfeit bills found in Athens seems to indicate some are trying to grow money in their basements.
As of Feb. 15, 13 counterfeit bills have been reported in the city and others have been found in the rest of Athens County, said Athens Police Chief Tom Pyle and Athens County Sheriff Pat Kelly.
“Somebody has obviously stumbled upon a way to manufacture them. This seems to be a consistent pattern. It’s not just happening in Athens, but Hocking and Marietta as well,” Pyle said. “I’ve seen sporadic patterns before, but never to this level.”
These bills have been found at various banks and businesses around town, Pyle said.
The businesses include Family Dollar, the Subway inside Wal-Mart, the Richland Avenue McDonald’s and Buffalo Wild Wings, said Athens Police Lt. Jeff McCall.
Buffalo Wild Wings manager Woody Rouse said an individual tried to pass a counterfeit bill Jan. 31 and police were nearly successful in catching him.
“One of my cashiers tended the bill and thought it was odd and gave it to me,” Rouse said. “It had a texture going both ways; you could feel the fibers going opposite directions.”
Rouse said the bill did not have the security strip or watermark genuine bills have, so he called the police.
“Usually someone who passes a counterfeit bill has gotten it elsewhere and is completely unaware — but he ran off, he knew he passed a counterfeit bill,” Rouse said. “We missed catching him by less than one minute.”
Rouse did pass his security tapes on to law enforcement officials, and there are a couple leads they are following.
“We have video surveillance on a couple of incidents that were provided by Homeland Security and we are investigating these leads,” Kelly said. “We understand that two counties are printing money and that they may be within Athens County.”
Most businesses use counterfeit markers to detect fake bills printed on paper, Pyle said, not the cloth that genuine bills are printed on.
But because some are bleaching real bills and reprinting higher denominations, the markers are no longer effective, he added.
“Anyone doing this is likely to make much larger denominations of money,” Pyle said. “This is the first time we have seen someone do it with tens and twenties.”
Increased public awareness that the security strip in the bill is the best way to determine if a bill is genuine and the correct denomination, Pyle said.
“Education is the most effective way to stop this,” he said. “We have a couple leads we are tracking down. This person or persons are obviously still tracking paper around town. I would say quite a few have gone undiscovered and will be popping up in the near future.”
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