Posted on 04/07/2005 2:46:06 PM PDT by TitansAFC
A man trying to pay a fee using $2 bills was arrested, handcuffed and taken to jail after clerks at a Best Buy store questioned the currency's legitimacy and called police.
According to an account in the Baltimore Sun, 57-year-old Mike Bolesta was shocked to find himself taken to the Baltimore County lockup in Cockeysville, Md., where he was handcuffed to a pole for three hours while the U.S. Secret Service was called to weigh in on the case.
Bolesta told the Sun: "I am 6 feet 5 inches tall, and I felt like 8 inches high. To be handcuffed, to have all those people looking on, to be cuffed to a pole – and to know you haven't done anything wrong. And me, with a brother, Joe, who spent 33 years on the city police force. It was humiliating."
After Best Buy personnel reportedly told Bolesta he would not be charged for the installation of a stereo in his son's car, he received a call from the store saying it was in fact charging him the fee. As a means of protest, Bolesta decided to pay the $114 bill using 57 crisp, new $2 bills.
As the owner of Capital City Student Tours, the Baltimore resident has a hearty supply of the uncommon currency. He often gives the bills to students who take his tours for meal money.
"The kids don't see that many $2 bills, so they think this is the greatest thing in the world," Bolesta says. "They don't want to spend 'em. They want to save 'em. I've been doing this since I started the company. So I'm thinking, 'I'll stage my little comic protest. I'll pay the $114 with $2 bills.'"
Bolesta explained what happened when he presented the bills to the cashier at Best Buy Feb. 20.
"She looked at the $2 bills and told me, 'I don't have to take these if I don't want to.' I said, 'If you don't, I'm leaving. I've tried to pay my bill twice. You don't want these bills, you can sue me.' So she took the money – like she's doing me a favor."
Belesta says the cashier marked each bill with a pen. Other store employees began to gather, a few of them asking, "Are these real?"
"Of course they are," Bolesta said. "They're legal tender."
According to the Sun report, the police arrest report noted one employee noticed some smearing of ink on the bills. That's when the cops were called. One officer reportedly noticed the bills ran in sequential order.
Said Bolesta: "I told them, 'I'm a tour operator. I've got thousands of these bills. I get them from my bank. You got a problem, call the bank.' I'm sitting there in a chair. The store's full of people watching this. All of a sudden, he's standing me up and handcuffing me behind my back, telling me, 'We have to do this until we get it straightened out.'
"Meanwhile, everybody's looking at me. I've lived here 18 years. I'm hoping my kids don't walk in and see this. And I'm saying, 'I can't believe you're doing this. I'm paying with legal American money.'"
Bolesta was taken to the lockup, where he sat handcuffed to a pole and in leg irons while the Secret Service was called.
"At this point," he says, "I'm a mass murderer."
Secret Service agent Leigh Turner eventually arrived and declared the bills legitimate, adding, according to the police report, "Sometimes ink on money can smear."
Commenting on the incident, Baltimore County police spokesman Bill Toohey told the Sun: "It's a sign that we're all a little nervous in the post-9/11 world."
ML/NJ
I have a $2 bill from 1928 in my wallet. It's worth...$2
Last time I worked as a cashier we were required to mark big bills ($50s & 100s) - there was also a LOT of counterfit (SP?) money being passed around the city I was in at the time though. The pens used mark yellow on regular paper and turn purple when used to mark bills.
Thanks. I buy coffee every morning at a Mcdonalds. If I pay with a twenty they always mark the bill. I always wondered why but never asked. Now I know. I'm glad the ink has always been amber colored.
I am normally against lawsuits - but this one BEGS to be filed - and I would imagine that MANY lawyers would LOVE to get their hands on this one - This could literally be a multi-million dollar suit. And it really would serve Best Buy and the local PD right. I just hate that taxpayers would have to pay for any judgment against the cops.
Absolutely INSANE.
Paying for your house would just be the down payment...
hehe... got the colors mixed up - stays yellow on real currency turns dark purpleish on regular paper (see post #124).
This will never go to trial.
It will be worth several hundred thousand dollar to the Best Buy national office not to be painted in court and in the subsequent news coverage as idiotic, jack-booted thugs that have customers thrown in jail for using U.S legal tender.
"Can you still get the $1 coins with the Indian babes picture on it, whos name I cannot spell?"
"Sacagawea." And yes, you can get them. Wal-Mart gives them out, and any bank will. My car wash gives them as coin change when you put paper money in the machine for a wash.
I took a bunch of them with me to Mexico last trip, and was giving them to the little kids that sell gum and dolls and stuff. One tiny little girl, about 3 years old, looked at it, and took it to her mother and her mother sent her back to me to get some "real money." LOL!
I think the cop got confused after watching Miami Vice reruns on Spike TV. He knew there was something about sequential numbers, money and bad guys, but no idea what the what it was. So, while trying to appear really smart, he actually became the stupidest one on the scene.
Still not sure about the post 9-11 thing, unless terrorists use the $2 bill to mark the page the are reading in their koran.
I know a lot of teachers who should not be teaching.
The cops should have taken the guys name, address, etc off his ID and sent him home saying, "We'll get back with you if anything is amiss."
I recall an old adage about ignorance of the law is no excuse.
Thanks for the info. The only time I have ever had that done to me was at Best Buy....fortunately the bills were good!
You can get Squawbucks at the bank or Post Office, their stamp machines use them to make change from bills.
The $2 bill is PR for the military base when the town starts grousing about having all those military types wandering the streets. The base has a $2 payday and the bills immediately show up everywhere in town. Makes people conscious of how much of their affluence is due to the presence of the military base.
I won't make any true prediction on whether or he will be awarded money, or whether it will actually get to trial. Best Buy should get on top of it quickly and issue a written apology and offer something in the way of a generous gift certificate. The Police Chief should also offer a written apology. In the event a lawsuit is actually filed, these things may soften the views of a jury when it comes to awarding any possible damages.
That is pretty clever.
I've got a bunch of $2 bills in a drawer, now I'll have to save them for sure. Either that or take them to a bank.
No, indeed. This ought to cost Baltimore County a few hundred thousand Jeffersons! And, perhaps Best Buy should also be forced to chip in, depending on the facts.
The pen is actually testing for the presence of bleaching agents in counterfeit currency.
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