Counterfeit $100 Bills Circulating in Fort Worth
Some store owners alerting customers they won't take $100 bills
Kimberly King, NBCDFW.com
Some Fort Worth store owners are refusing to take $100 bills after a flood of fakes.
Fort Worth police say counterfeit bills have surfaced at convenience stores and hair salons across the city.
According to police reports, at least five $100 counterfeit bills have showed up at Fort Worth stores since May.
Some store owners have stopped accepting $100 bills because of the counterfeits.
The owner of Great Outdoors, a sandwich shop on Camp Bowie Boulevard, has put up signs in both his doors telling customers he won't accept any $100 bills.
He said his bank told him someone used a counterfeit $20 in his shop in the last several days.
Nancy Lopez, a stylist at Trio Salon, said a woman asking for a specific kind of hair product paid with a fake $100.
"The bill ripped in half," she said. "We were suspicious because the bill was smaller than a normal $100 bill."
Trio owner Cathryn Talon said the woman bought $60 worth of products and received $40 in change.
Stylists said the woman had the nerve to come back in the salon to buy more.
"But we recognized her, and she took off," Talon said.
She said they gave the woman's license plate number to Fort Worth police.
Mike Hussein, who has owned his Miller Avenue convenience store for seven years, said a clerk took in a fake $100 bill a few weeks ago. He said he knew it was counterfeit, confiscated it and reported it to police.
"When you put it in the light, you can read the strip, and it says $5," Hussein said.
The U.S. Secret Service, which investigates the counterfeiting of U.S. currency, said it doesn't know of any big trend of fake bills in Fort Worth.
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