Quantcast

The DNAinfo archives brought to you by WNYC.
Read the press release here.

Counterfeit $10 Bill Used Downtown: Spender Caught Quickly By Police

THE LOOP — For a man caught using a fake $10 bill on Adams Street and Wabash Avenue Monday afternoon, crime didn't pay much, and it didn't pay for long.

R.J. Ricalde said he was working Monday at Halo Asian Mix, 29 E. Adams St., when a man gave him a $10 bill for a bottle of water that cost a little more than $1.

The man accepted the change and walked out, at which point Ricalde recognized the bill as a fake. He flagged down his friend Jose Torres, who works at the Dunkin Donuts down the street where the man stopped next.

Torres said he then flagged down two police officers standing nearby on Wabash. When Ricalde described the man, police said they'd seen him enter nearby Miller's Pub.

Aris Gallios, co-owner of Miller's Pub, said that the man entered the vestibule at the restaurant's entrance and "was making noise, messing around with something."

Gallios said police met the man in the vestibule and struggled with him before escorting him out of the restaurant.

Police could not confirm that an arrest was made Tuesday afternoon, officer John Mirabelli said.

After the man left the scene with police, Gallios says Miller's Pub employees searched the vestibule's rafters after police suggested the man could have hidden more counterfeit bills, but nothing was found.

Gallios said an officer showed him the bill, which "looked perfect, but as soon as you touched it, you could feel it."

Torres said the Dunkin Donuts on Adams Street handled a fake $10 bill two or three months ago, but said he didn't know if it was passed by the same person.