The Cortez Police Department is asking local businesses to keep an eye out for counterfeit money after two recent cases of counterfeit money being used in Cortez businesses.
The PD said counterfeit bills can often be identified through similar or same serial numbers, but other bills weren’t discovered to be counterfeit until they were run through a bank machine.
The first incident, 12301927, was reported on Oct. 7 at Walgreens. Officer Charles Osborne responded and spoke with Tracy, an employee, who said an African-American woman bought a prepaid EBT card worth $160 with counterfeit $20 bills.
Though Osborne reviewed Walgreens’ security footage, the woman’s face couldn’t be clearly seen.
Upon inspection, Osborne found that five of the bills shared the same serial number of #LE92381332C, and the other three shared #JL55349288C.
The bills were taken by Osborne, and the case was closed because no suspect was identified.
The second, 12301950, took place Oct. 11 at Four Corners Community Bank, 77 W. Main St.
Officer Michael Rivas spoke with bank employee Adrianna Gage, who said money put in the after-hours box from Auto Zone and the Dollar Tree contained counterfeit bills, which weren’t identified until they were rejected by the bank machine.
The counterfeit bills totaled $260 from Auto Zone and $200 from the Dollar Tree. Rivas took the counterfeit bills from the bank as well as a Department of Homeland Security United States Secret Service Counterfeit note.
The manager of Auto Zone was not available when Rivas attempted to speak with him, and Dollar Tree said it would take a week or so to get the security footage, so Rivas noted in his incident report that he would be following up with both businesses.
Counterfeit bills or suspected forgery can be reported to the Cortez Police Department at (970) 565-8441.
