Luzerne County Government

May 22, 2010

Official: Fee paid with fake cash

County prothonotary now will use counterfeit detection pens to check cash payments made in the office.

By Jennifer Learn-Andes jandes@timesleader.com
Luzerne County Reporter
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Counterfeit detection pens are now being used in the Luzerne County Prothonotary’s Office because a man recently paid a court-mandated fee with fake money, office Deputy Bob Sypniewski said Friday.

The pens will be used on all paper money before a payment is accepted and recorded, he said.

Sypniewski said he cannot identify the counterfeit payer because he has not been charged, and the U.S. Secret Service and other law enforcement officials are still investigating.

The Hazleton area man comes into the office once a month to pay $20 in rent stemming from his mother’s eviction. The payment, known as poundage, was ordered while the case is on appeal, Sypniewski said.

The man handed two $10 bills to the cashier and said, “I hate to give you these two bluebacks. These are my better ones,” Sypniewski said.

He may have been referring to worthless money. The term blueback refers to Confederate paper currency from the U.S. Civil War that rapidly lost value.

That type of comment wasn’t unusual, Sypniewski said, because people who are making payments occasionally joke that they are handing over money they’ve just printed.

The cashier started examining the cash after the man left and became suspicious. Sypniewski said the ink looked too bluish, and the serial number was the same on both bills.

Sypniewski said he was “dumbfounded” that someone would use counterfeit money to pay a bill, particularly in a government office.

He took the two bills to the county’s credit union, which has counterfeit detection pens, and the ink turned black, indicating the money was fake. He reported the information to federal agents, who verified the bills were counterfeit and appeared to be produced using a color copier or printer, Sypniewski said.

“It’s in their hands now,” he said.

The man’s payment was voided, which means he will likely lose his appeal, Sypniewski said.

“If he doesn’t pay that $20 by the end of the month – with real money – then he’s defaulted,” he said.

The county Treasurer’s Office, which accepts the lion’s share of county payments, has been using the special counterfeit detection pens for years, said office Manager Laura Beers.

But manually checking individual bills became difficult during busy periods, so the office spent $1,460 about a year ago to purchase a high-speed cash counter with magnetic and ultraviolet counterfeit detection, Beers said.

“We’re very sensitive to the possibility of counterfeiting because once the county accepts that money, we’re stuck,” Beers said.

Counterfeiting hasn’t been a problem, she said. The only experience she recalls was with a woman paid a debt with a stack of $100 bills, one of them counterfeit. The said the money had come to the county straight from a bank, and the money had been wrapped when she arrived in the office.

Jennifer Learn-Andes, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 831-7333.

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