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Counterfeit bills spotted in Hinesville
Officials on lookout for those passing fake money
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Counterfeit clues

Officials urge money-handlers to compare suspicious bills with genuine ones and note these differences:

• Portrait: Genuine por-traits appear lifelike and stand out from background; counterfeit portraits are lifeless and flat.

• Federal Reserve and Treasury Seals: Genuine seals are clear, distinct and sharp, while false ones may be uneven, blunt or broken.

• Border: Lines on a genuine bill’s border are unbroken; counterfeit lines may be blurred and indistinct.

• Serial Numbers: Genuine serial numbers are evenly spaced and match the same color as the Treasury seal; counterfeit bills may not be uniform in spacing and color.

• Paper: Genuine currency has tiny red and blue fibers embedded throughout, while many counterfeiters try to print lines on the surface.

Source: www.SeceretService.gov

Shoppers and cashiers, check your currency.

That’s the message the Hinesville Police Department is spreading as a number of area businesses have reported customers trying to make purchases with counterfeit bills, according to Detectives Division Lt. Susie Jackson.

“Anywhere you go, if you get change back, you may want to step aside and check it,” Jackson said. “I even look at the bills I get back from the bank to make sure.”

Since the beginning of the month, more than 15 incident reports have been filed involving counterfeit $10, $20, $50 and $100 bills.

“Naturally, when it happens this often, we’ll pass the information on to the Secret Service,” Jackson said. The Secret Service — not the U.S. Treasury Department — is the office that investigates counterfeiting on a federal level.

Savannah Field Office Special Agent David Johnson said his department has seen a nationwide uptick in the use of counterfeits but that the crime tends to happen in cycles.

“You can have a region get hit hard for a short time, and then it will go away or decrease on its own or an arrest is made,” he said. People passing counterfeits tend to travel between regions to avoid detection, and areas near interstates, such as Interstate 95, frequently are targeted.

“Obviously, one counterfeit note is one too many, especially for the person who ends up getting stuck with it,” Johnson added.

Unaware consumers who receive counterfeit bills often have to forfeit the notes without getting any compensation, Jackson said. “Once you walk away from the counter, you’re going to have a more difficult time making an argument to that store, bank or restaurant to say, ‘Hey, you gave me some counterfeit money.’”

The Secret Service works with local agencies to identify and shut down the operations of people who manufacture and pass counterfeit money, Johnson said.

Those who are found to knowingly create, use or distribute counterfeit bills will face stiff penalties, as the offenses are felonies, Jackson said.

But one of the problems with tracking offenders is that officers must be able to prove that a customer knows the bill is not genuine.

“If someone goes in a store and they have money on them and one out of five bills on them turns out to be counterfeit … and the person says, ‘Please do call the police,’ … in that case, that person most likely wouldn’t be charged,” Johnson said. “If someone is found in possession of, you know, five or 10 counterfeit notes at one time, it’s less likely that they innocently possessed it.”

According to the reports, most people carrying the bills say they are not aware that the bills are counterfeit, and they have reported receiving the notes from their banks, Walmart and other stores.

But in one Sept. 5 case, a man who tried to pass a counterfeit $10 bill at a restaurant left while employees were in the process of checking the bill, according to a police report.

The employee working the Burger King drive-through on E.G. Miles Parkway was unsure whether the bill was genuine, so she took it to her manager for confirmation, the report said. The manager verified that the bill was counterfeit.

When the manager and the employee returned to the window, the vehicle was gone. The employee reported to police that the man was driving a white GMC Yukon with a gold stripe on its side. The same man had been through the line the previous day and used a counterfeit $20 bill, which the same employee did not realize was fake until she counted the money in her cash drawer at the end of her shift, the report said.

A Burger King manager named Diane — who declined to give her last name, citing privacy concerns — said she first noticed counterfeit bills at the end of August.

Since then, people have tried to pass $130 in counterfeit bills at the restaurant, the manager added. About two weeks ago, the manager was counting money when she realized that one of the bills in her stack felt “funny, ” so she marked it with a counterfeit detection pen and the ink turned brown — an indication that it likely is not genuine.

The same day, the manager received a call from a bank representative, who informed her that there were two counterfeit $20 bills in the previous day’s deposit.

“I really felt bad,” she said, saying she was unaware that other stores had been targeted, too. “I was like, ‘Are we that gullible?’”

Now, the store has three markers at each register and each employee has been briefed on the protocol for detecting and handling suspicious bills.

“We’re watching them really hard,” she said. “It’s not going to pass through here again.”

Dug-Out Sports Bar and Grill on E.G. Miles reported multiple customers have attempted to pass counterfeit $50 bills, the reports said.

“The first thing I noticed with the money was the cut of the bill was uneven,” responding Officer Lyle Thurmond wrote in the first police report. “I also noticed there was no watermark on the bill.”

In the first incident, on Sept. 7, the woman who made the complaint told the officers that the customer who tried to use the bill was still in the restaurant.

Thurmond and another officer asked the man to step outside and questioned him about the bill.

The customer said he was unaware that the money was counterfeit and could not pinpoint where he got it, and he allowed the officers to go through his wallet, the report said. They did not find any other counterfeit notes.

False bills also have made their way to grocery and convenience stores on Highway 84.

The Flash Foods at 463 W. Oglethorpe Highway also reported multiple incidents.

On Sept. 6, a man reportedly purchased a $550 money order with a variety of small bills, but the clerk later noticed multiple counterfeit $20 bills were buried in the middle of the stack, the report said. The clerk tried to cancel the money order after realizing the bills were counterfeit.

As for the outlying areas of the county, Liberty County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Keith Moran said he has not seen any incident reports involving counterfeit currency within the past 10 days, which indicates the bills mainly are being passed within Hinesville city limits.

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HPD Reports
crime scene

From Hinesville Police Department reports. Editor’s note: Due to computer issues at the city, reports have been unavailable in recent weeks. They are back. Our thanks to the HPD clerks who provide them. We’re catching up as quickly as possible.

Burglary, etc: A man called 911 on Feb. 27 because he was watching his White Circle home getting burglarized. The man said his alarm system had an app that showed live video on his phone, and he was “viewing three males inside his residence,” as he talked to 911.
Police responded, caught two of them inside the house and found the third guy “hiding behind a tree,” the report said.
Detectives are investigating.

Public indecency: An officer was sent to Lowes around 4:30 p.m. March 12 in reference to a disturbance involving a man and a woman.
The woman, a Lowe’s employee, said she had just got back from her lunch break when she saw the man “looking around at items on a shelf.”
The woman said she asked him if he needed help finding anything and he held up something, then said “I have found everything I need,” the report said. “(he) then placed his arms around (the employee) to hug her and then kissed (her) neck. (She) then moved away from (him) and told him to have a nice day and attempted to walk away from (the man). (He) then began to follow (her), stating ‘I would lick you up and down’ and ‘you better hide in an office.’ (She) then spoke with manager and called 911.’”
The man told police he thought he recognized the woman “and stated to me that he had previously had a relationship with her approximately two years ago. (He) was unable to recall (her) name while on scene.”
The woman told police “she has never seen, nor spoken to (the man) before today.”
The woman was given a case number and told what to do. The man was allowed to leave.

Indecent exposure: A Berkshire Terrace man reported he went outside his house around 6:40 a.m. and “observed a man who appeared to be intoxicated, peeing on his truck and trailer.”
The complainant said the man “fully exposed his penis while he was peeing. When (complainant) asked him to stop the man told him to ‘shut the (bleep) up.’ (Complainant) advised the man he would call police. (Complainant) advised his young son was standing outside during the incident. He said the man got into a 1996 black Buick and drove away, almost hitting cars that were parked in the driveway.”
The complainant said he did not want to press charges, “he said he wanted to report the incident because the man did not stop peeing when he asked him too.”
The complainant said he’d seen the man before “come and go” from a nearby apartment. The officer met with the resident of that apartment, who said the man was a cousin and did not pee on the complainant’s trailer.

Identity theft: A man went to HPD on March 21 to report that when he went to get a driver’s history for a commercial driver’s license, he found several citations on the history that weren’t his. “(He) stated he noticed someone was issued four citations in Arkansas and one citation in Jacksonville, Florida,” and during the time the Arkansas tickets were written he was in locked up in Georgia.
“(He) advised that he was not incarcerated when the citation in Jacksonville, Florida was issued but he was not in Florida at the time. (He) was unable to leave the state of Georgia due to being on felony probation.”
It gets worse.
“(He) told me that he attempted to file his income taxes for the first time ever and he was rejected due to owing the IRS money, $20,000. (He) stated he spoke to a representative for the IRS and he was informed that taxes were filed in his name in 2014 and the return was $1,3000. (He) advised he did not file taxes in 2013 and he was still incarcerated at the time.”
The man then told the officer he thinks his brother “got the citations and filed income taxes using his information. (He) believed his brother obtained his Social Security number and other demographics when he was incarcerated.”
The man said he talked to his brother, who said he paid all the tickets. “(His) brother also told him on a different occasion that he knew his date of birth and (SSN). (He) advised he told his brother that it was not OK to use his name due to him getting his life together and attempting to drive commercial vehicles.”
The guy said he didn’t have his brother’s address. He chose to fill out an identity theft packet.

Simple battery, theft by taking: An officer was sent around 2 a.m. March 20 to the Baymont Inn regarding a disturbance. There, a woman said she was being “grabbed and pulled” by a man when she told him to leave her motel room. She said they began arguing when he accused her of stealing $100.
The man claimed he met the woman on a dating website and when they “started having sex she informed him that it would cost $100.” He told her he wasn’t going to pay her, “got dressed and realized the five $20s in his pants pocket were missing. He accused (her) of stealing his money.”
The officer asked the woman if she stole the man’s money and she replied, “No, I work hard for my money.”
Both were given a case number and told how to get a warrant.

Robbery: A woman called HPD March 15 to report she was home when her estranged husband came to her apartment “and asked her to come outside to talk to him,” a report said.
“She stated that she stepped outside thinking that he was going to be civil, though she recently filed for divorce from him. As she stepped outside, he grabbed her necklace off her neck and then ran down the stairwell and out to the parking lot.”
The woman said he stood by his vehicle a minute, then drove off as police arrived. Officers checked the area but had no luck finding the man.

Burglary: Police were sent to a Malibu Drive address on March 13 regarding missing firearms and ransacked rooms. The homeowners were at work and got home to find handguns and rifles missing, as well as video games.
It appeared the home may have been broken into through the attic. Police found footprints and other evidence, and the case is under investigation.

Recovered stolen trailer: A U-Haul employee was inventorying equipment on March 14 when she discovered a trailer that had been reported stolen in Florida on Dec. 26. “She stated someone had backed the trailer into a parking stall along with the other trailers sometime during the night.”

Theft: In February, the maintenance man at Cypress Bend Mobile Home Park reported that “22 air conditioning unit disconnect boxes were stolen from various lots… He stated he began receiving calls from people that their air conditioning units were not working.”
The boxes contain small pieces of copper. He didn’t know who swiped them, but valued the total at about $341.

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