Something is wrong here. If a cop things he has a counterfeit bill in his possession, he’s supposed to report it. If he gave it back to you, he’s participating in a crime himself. Even if he has a way to address this, he has no probable cause. A competent, honest judge won’t issue a warrent based on a police officers statement that “he thought it was counterfeit”. He will have to provide some detail that makes his belief that it was counterfeit reasonable. Even if he does that, the procedure for dealing with counterfeiting is to contact the Treasury Dept., and the judge would probably tell the cop to do that.
This was either a scam or the guy didn’t want to take $100 or $50 bills because they could be counterfeit. Most people just try to pass them off if they’re counterfeit. If you get caught doing that, nothing happens except you lose your money and they ask you where you got it from. Unless there’s some reason to suspect you are a counterfeiter instead of a victim your home won’t be searched. At the worst they’d want to examine your bank records and taxes, and that’s unlikely without additional evidence. But a cop who’s accused of passing a counterfeit bill could suffer consequences. He’d have to have it examined, and if it was counterfeit he’d have to turn it in and lose his money. He could sue you for payment or return of the appliance, but then he’s stuck trying to prove you gave him the counterfeit bill now in the custody of the Treasury Dept. So he doesn’t want to get involved in all that mess, and possibly have you file a complaint about him.
I used to have a cash business, and made it clear to anyone working the register that $50 and $100 bills had to be tested with the special pen, or they had to put their initials on the bill, with the implicit threat they’d be docked the money if the bill was phony. I don’t know if I could actually do that, but they got the hint and always used the pen. Surprisingly, we rejected a lot of bills that had clearly been tested and failed previously. So there are plenty of phony bills out there.
PC to get a SW is only that evidence of a crime exists at a location, by the PC determination, not necessarily that the person himself who resides there has knowledge of it.
If the bills were not confiscated on the spot, to support the affidavit, while it is still possible a SW can be authorized, not likely.
Remember, a Trial Judge can even overrule the Official who authorized the SW if they find no PC existed and it should not have been issued.
Another note about the ‘record’ issue: an arrest warrant is different from a search warrant.
If he was a cop and does get a search warrant, that’s not going to affect your record at all. If you have incriminating evidence in plain view while they search, they can arrest you for that (so make sure Teddy did a thorough job in the basement canal). But if they show up, find nothing, you’re future job prospects are fine.
If he wanted to fuck with you over a counterfeit bill, he would have arrested you, with the bill as proof. He didn’t which suggests he doesn’t want to let this go any further.
I’d chalk it up to him being uncertain and mistaken about the bills. For him, it’s the safest choice, he doesn’t lose $100 by taking a bad bill, and he doesn’t look like an idiot by arresting someone who had good currency.
It’s possible he is a detective and scammed you. It’s possible he pretended to be a detective and scammed you. I don’t think it’s worth the trouble to find out.
I can think of one or two (three, if pressed) easier ways of scoring a few hundred bucks than inviting strangers to my house and switching my stack of counterfeit bills for their legitimate bills.
I think the suggestion above that he got a better offer but didn’t want to say so once you showed up is, if he was making the counterfeiting bit up, much more likely.
They worked well enough. If they pass the pen test, they’re not likely to be picked up at the bank either (maybe further down the line when they’ve lost track of who gave it to them). You do need to be smart enough to know that a $100 bill doesn’t have a picture of Mickey Mouse on the front.
yeah he doesn’t sound like an actual cop, just someone trying to scam you outta $100 who got lucky and got twice that … i’d call the actual cops
in reality it’s super easy for a cop to get a warrant, 99% are given…yet cops still feel like they need to break the law all the time, i wouldn’t worry about it, if you’re not the one counterfeiting the money, u got nothing to worry about just so u actually did obtain it thinking it was real money (eg. from a cashier or at the bank, or from ur parents)… if they did tear ur house up and make a mess over what was actually real money, u could probably sue the hell outta them