DANVILLE, Ky. — A $200 bill bearing the likeness of President Bush would seem to be an obvious fake. But it seemed real enough to fool one fast-food cashier.
Police are looking for the person who used the bill to buy $2.12 worth of food at a Dairy Queen, and drove away after getting $197.88 in change.
In addition to the Bush portrait on the front, the treasury seal is marked with the phrase, “The right to bear arms.” An oil well appears on the back of the bill.
Wow.
I noticed the police said that because the bill was such an obvious fake, the perp wouldn’t be charged with passing bad bills (if caught, anyway); he’d only be charged with failure to pay for a purchase.
Hmm… Just wondering here, if you don’t pay for a purchase, is it a purchase? Doesn’t a purchase by definition have to be paid for? And if you don’t pay for something that’s not yours, isn’t that… stealing?
You know, they don’t mention it in the story, but I wonder if that dumb cashier got fired over it. If I were his/her boss, I’d have to strongly consider it - would you want someone handling your money who didn’t know there’s no such thing as a $200 George W. Bush bill?
Keep in mind: Tight job market + Menial job + Minimum wage = Few Rhode Scholars working at Dairy Queen.
On a side note, I think your focusing on the wrong thing here. Sure the kid accepted a poorly photocopied $200 bill with George Bush’s picture on it and a pair of crossed assult rifles on the Treasuary seal, but {b]he managed to make the right change**. That in my experience makes him/her superior to many McDonalds employees I’ve met.
LOL! Good point, inky. But then again, all you have to do nowadays is punch in the amount the customer gives you. So if you give the kid a $200 bill and he assumes it to be real, he’ll punch in “$200” - and then the machine will simply tell him he needs to give XXX in change. Of course, that doesn’t prevent him from not counting properly…
This happened in my hometown :o while I was there this weekend. I saw a picture of the fake bill. It looks even faker than you might think. On the back, in addition to the oil well on the White House lawn, there are signs reading “We Like Broccoli” or something like that. The “serial number” on the bill is, I think, “I(heart)2smrk4u.” In addition, there was scotch tape all over the bill. I keep wondering who accepted it; chances are I know them! :eek:
I went to that Dairy Queen on Monday and the manager was working the drive through. I thought that was odd, but at that point the news hadn’t yet broken!
About twenty, twenty-five years ago in (IIRC) Cloverdale, CA, a guy paid for a $19 traffic fine with a $22 bill. The bill bore his own picture, with him wearing a Panama hat and jauntily smoking a cigar.
It’s only counterfitting if you attempt to pass fake actual currency, the loophole is that since there is no $200 bill Therefore it’s only ‘theft by decpetion’ (fraud)
Way back in pre-history (1982) I was working at Taco Bell during HS. One of our cashiers gave a guy change for a fifty. The bill was a one dollar bill with 50’s taped to the corners. It still had George Washington’s pic.
