March 28, 2024
BANGOR DAILY NEWS (BANGOR, MAINE

Businesses warned about counterfeit bills > Bogus bill turns up in Calais on weekend

CALAIS — A counterfeit $20 bill turned up in the city over the weekend, and police have asked local businesses to be on the lookout for other bogus bills.

Details of the investigation remained sketchy, but Calais Police Sergeant Ralph Bridges said Monday the phony $20 bill was discovered by employees at Hardwicke’s Country Store when they found that the paper the bill was printed on did not feel like ordinary currency. Bridges said Monday, that the bill, and any others that might be discovered, would be turned over to the U.S. Secret Service.

This was not the first time counterfeit money has turned up in Calais. In December 1990, the Calais branch of Fleet Bank reportedly took in several counterfeit $100 bills. In January 1991, another bogus $100 bill turned up at Rich’s Department Store. Those bills were turned over to the Secret Service.

Although Bridges would not speculate whether there might be a connection between the $20 and the $100 counterfeit bills passed a year ago, he said he believed both the $100 bills and the $20 bill might have come from outside the country. “I believe this probably is from Canada too,” he said.

Bridges advised local business owners to be on the look out for more bogus bills, and he asked them to call police if they believed they had one. He said police would pick up the bill and take it to a local bank for confirmation. If the bill was discovered while the individual who passed it still was at the store, he said, police should be notified immediately.

“Not that these people necessarily know that it is counterfeit, but they might be able to help us trace it back to its origin,” he said.

In other police business, Chief Michael Milburn reported that Stephen Green, 48, Grand Harbor, Grand Manan, was arrested Saturday, Feb. 1, and charged with operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of intoxicating liquor. He is scheduled to appear in 4th District Court in Calais on Tuesday, Feb. 28.


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