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Police Seek Two Women Passing Counterfeit $100s

Seven Bogus Bills Used At Vancouver Mall

POSTED: 4:22 pm PDT July 17, 2008
UPDATED: 5:21 pm PDT July 17, 2008

Police in Vancouver are looking for two young women who are passing counterfeit $100 bills.

They successfully used at least seven of the bogus bills Tuesday evening near Vancouver Mall.

Operators of a sports store accepted two of the fake Franklins, before becoming suspicious.

Clerks at the store said two teenage girls came into the store and bought small items about five minutes apart. Each paid with a $100 bill.

Although the store checks large bills, the test didn't show the bills to be fakes.

"We check each large bill to be sure that they’re real, and the pen showed that it was real," store manager Bryan Young said.

Though the stroke of the pen that tests the validity of money turned yellow -- the color that indicates real money -- the bills were counterfeit.

Young said he realized that when women who work in the nail salon next door came in to use his testing pen on a $100 bill they’d just received.

"I noticed that the serial numbers are the same. That’s how I could tell they weren't real," Young said.

They were not the only businesses hit in the small mall on Northeast Parkway Drive. Supercuts was also caught off guard by the forged bills Tuesday evening.

"I couldn’t believe it. She was so young. I had no idea," Supercuts hairstylist Chanelle Belke said. "If that guy hadn’t come down, we never would have found out."

The manager from Play It Again Sports saw the same serial number on the haircutter’s hundred. He remembered the women were carrying bags from T.J. Maxx when they came into his store.

T.J. Maxx took in three bad bills and gave their surveillance video to police.

Employees of the four businesses gave similar descriptions: Hispanic women, between 16 and 20 years old and both about 5 feet 4 inches tall.

"I’m kind of leery about it now. People are sneaky nowadays," shopper Joan Bitzer said.

Both shoppers and storekeepers are concerned now.

"Unfortunately, even if they're regular customers, we’re going to check them, because of the fact we don’t know how many of these are out there that people don’t know,"

The manager said he’s now out $200 and will be checking every big bill that comes his way.

Police Seek Two Women Passing Counterfeit $100s

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