Lafayette police ask cashiers and store employees to be on the look out for counterfeits

LAFAYETTEm Ind. (WLFI) - Funny money is no laughing matter for more than ten businesses in the Greater Lafayette area. Now, detectives ask employees and cashiers to be on the look out.

WalMart, Targe, Menard's, and PetSmart are just a few of the Lafayette stores hit this month with counterfeit money. Charges have been filed against Vashaun Hannah, Scotty Gatlin, and Donilla Dismukes for passing the fake bills. They have all been charged with conspiracy to commit forgery.

Lafayette Police detective B.T. Brown said the first case popped up on earlier this month. He said they just kept coming after that.

"We have about twelve cases that we are looking at just from the Lafayette Police Department side that we connected to this particular group. I know that there are, at least, four other cases that we investigated earlier this month that may be connected to the same group," said Brown.

Brown said the cases were spread out between Lafayette and West Lafayette. He said detectives were able to link the cases because all the bills had the same serial number. He said the security features on bills are something cashiers all need to be weary of.

"The security feature, such as a watermark or there's a UV strip on there that has micro printing on it as well and most of the people are familiar with that type of stuff," said Brown.

Brown said some cashiers did catch the counterfeit bills and refused to take the fake money. Cashiers at Ace Hardware are also told to decline any money that doesn't seem real.

Manager Tim Ginter said when counterfeit cases pop up in the store's area, the bank gives employees a heads up.

"The bank recently told us to watch out for $20.00 bills printed on regular paper. They also told us to watch out for $100 bills that were being printed on bleached 5's," said Ginter.

Ginter said the store's counterfeit pen wouldn't detect the fake 100's so his employees have been advised to look for other security features.

Brown said if store employees discover a counterfeit bill, call the police immediately. Brown said that rule applies to anybody else who thinks they have encountered a fake bill.