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Sheboygan, WI (WHBL) – On Monday, a Q-Mart gas station on Taylor Drive reported receiving counterfeit money. More calls poured into the Sheboygan Police Department on Tuesday when the Petro gas station on South Business Drive received the fake cash. Then, on Wednesday and Thursday a bank on Kohler Memorial Drive reported receiving a large number of $100 bills.
Sheboygan police Lieutenant Mike Williams says this now marks the eleventh case of counterfeit bills being passed through Sheboygan within the past several days. Investigators do not believe the perpetrators are from Sheboygan.
“We do have some leads that we're following up on it this time unfortunately I’m not able to give you information concerning those busy investigation is ongoing at this time. We believe that the same parties passed all these bills so they are all related.”
Lt. Williams says investigators believe all of the cases are related, and says it is likely the people involved are spreading the fake cash in several other cities along Interstate 43. “Information has been passed to other cities, particularly along the I- 43 corridor and any other locations that have been hit by counterfeit bills.”
How to Detect Counterfeit Money:
Clearly many of the bills have made it past the initial test for abnormality, which is typically the use of a marker that detects whether or not the currency is authentic. But, Williams says those markers are not always fool-proof.
“That’s the most important thing. When people are getting fifty and hundred dollar bills- especially in higher quantities, they need to take the proper procedures in order to check them. Many of the businesses have the pen that is used to detect whether it’s a counterfeit bill. That’s not always fail-safe, because sometimes they (criminals) use the paper bills such as a five dollar bill or different type of currency and reuse it to make these hundred dollar bills. So, the pen can be defeated this way by using that same kind of paper. However, people still need to make sure they are following whatever procedures they may have been trained in, such as looking for a security strip that’s in the bill or looking for the waterpark that’s in the bill to make sure that they are the right ones that go with the hundred dollar bill."