A bar owner in Lansing has a warning tonight about fake money making its way around local businesses.
Roxanne Landes is a co-owner of the REO Town Pub. She says that it was a busy night on Wednesday when the woman in her mid-20's slipped her bartender the bogus bucks, which is something she had never seen in her nine years owning the bar.
"I was surprised. I was very surprised that it was counterfeit and it was that easy to do," Landes said.
Landes said she thought this 20 dollar bill looked fishy so she looked at the security cameras and spotted the woman she believed was responsible. She then called that woman back down to the bar, confronted her, and says the woman ended up paying her with real money. Then others in the bar started checking their money.
"Up and down our bar people started looking in their purses and wallets and we actually had three customers find this money in their purses and or wallets that they recieved back as change," she added.
She says there is no room for people like that here and wants the woman to be held responsible. Landes added that she has not filed a police report but might.
"I would like to see her prosecuted," she said.
Michigan State Police say that there are some ways you can check to make sure your money is real.
"If you hold it up to the light you should be able to see a watermark. You know if the bill is cut differently. Also the texture is something you want to look at. If its too thin that should be suspicious," Trooper Connor Piepkow said.
Landes says she wanted to warn others so the same doesn't happen to them.
"It's not just us. It's that person that gets this back as change and that may be their last 20 dollars. They go to get gas and pay for it and this is what they have, what do you do?" she said.
The Lansing Police Department says that they have only two other reported incidents of the counterfeit money this year.
Using counterfeit money is a federal offense. Anyone caught could face up to five years in prison and a $2,500 fine.
