Yogurt shop falls victim to counterfeit cash

Owners working with police to catch crooks with bogus bills

Published On: Feb 08 2012 10:47:14 PM EST  Updated On: Feb 09 2012 06:17:30 AM EST
Counterfeit 20 Dollar Bills Cash Register

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -

The owner of a local yogurt shop is working with police to catch customers who used fake cash to buy some frozen treats.

"If you look at this tape, you can see he fans a lot of money and came up to counter after that, and they were probably all fake bills," said Christie Benavides.

Benavides and her husband own Fro-Yogi in Argyle. The couple said a man showed up and paid for yogurt with a $50 bill that turned out to be counterfeit.

"We took the deposit to the bank and found out it was fake and the FBI would be contacting us," said Benavides.

The Secret Service and the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office are working with surveillance video from the store to figure out who the people using the fake money are.

Channel 4 was in the store Wednesday night as a JSO deputy inspected the video tape of the man handing the bill to the cashier. After the exchange, the man puts on his sunglasses and leaves with a decent amount of change.

"I don't think it's very nice. People work hard for their money and they come into businesses and do that to people," said Benavides.

Channel 4 Crime Analyst Ken Jefferson said counterfeiting is quite common and businesses often become victims unless they realize who passed the bill immediately. He said there are important methods used to spot a fake bill.

"A lot of them have pen with dye in it to show its authenticity of a legal tender bill. There's a way you can hold it up to light and look at strip to show its authenticity as well," said Jefferson.

If you have any information on this crime, police are asking you to contact Crime Stoppers at 1-866-845-TIPS.


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