Libertarian ping.To be added or removed from my ping list freepmail me or post a message here.
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."
I would deduct any award given from the net pay of every police employee and retire. At least $50 a week until the judgment is payed.
Oh my, this is truly embarassing. Cringe-able. I bet it's our Best Buy, too. Arrrgh!
I haven't changed my state flag yet....guess it will still be a while...
Is that the cute little old beige two-story building with bars on the windows, that we drive past occasionally? I always wondered if that had ever been a jail...
Stay tuned. I bet he's getting calls from the ambulance chasers. This is worth at least one million.
The Army post did that a couple times that I saw while I was clerking at Penneys a couple decades ago. I actually liked getting the $2 bills because they are interesting looking and they are fresh and clean and fit well in the register drawer.
I hope he gets a gigantic settlement from the Baltimore County police for false arrest.
Good heavens, imagine what shape the WA Ferry system would be in if they couldn't give these bills out to everyone!
You can test the green ink on any bill by dragging it across a piece of paper with your fingenail as a backing, the paper should have a green streak on it.
I just checked....they seem to be a smidgen larger than other bills.
So I guess they'll pay the settlement in $2 bills, too.
Are they larger? I don't have one here to check. They might be larger on purpose so they are more likely to be selected out of the wad.
Libertarian ping.To be added or removed from my ping list freepmail me or post a message here.
Me: Ever catch a counterfeit fifty?
Clerk: No.
Me: Anyone you know that works here that's ever 'caught' a counterfeit fifty?
Clerk: No.
Me: Ever hear of anyone ever, at either this store, or any other Best Buy, finding a counterfeit fifty?
Clerk: No.
Me: Better safe than sorry, huh?
Clerk: It's just what we're supposed to do.
I posted this on the other thread - but your messing "with other people's heads" told me I had found a kindred spirit.
Try using Sacajawea dollars at the McDonald's drive thru. I handed the girl five coins (and they're gold in color, mind you) and she says, "This is only a dollar twenty-five." I told her to look again - she had to call the manager, he came over, started laughing and told her that it was "real money, worth a dollar each." I got a couple free apple pies for the inconvenience.
This guy is going to own Best Buy when he finishes suing the company.
If the guy's lawyer is any good, he make the image of his client handcuffed in front of hundreds of people in his hometown Best Buy store and handcuffed to a pole for three hours very clear to the jury.
This isn't a case of "aw shucks. the police made a little boo boo - let's all laugh about it". They cuffed a man in front of everyone in the store for using LEGAL TENDER.
The guy should have never publicly admitted that he used to $2 bills to irritate Best Buy though.
You just don't get it you evil conservative, probably Rush listener and FOXnews watcher also.
The terrorists can use $2 bills to fund their activities because it take less paper then $1's for the same thing.
Teachers Unions made sure the clerks and the cops, all were aware of this attempt at fraud by not really educating them earlier in life.
See the teachers did know better they predicted the future.
Just think if we all used $2 dollar bills and what some "MORON" asked me just today:
I bought a DEW and to make change he had to ask whether the half dollar was real, he thought it was fake and was outta quarters. I said hey they is cool I'll take it just for the heck of it.
Moron will never know and tell his friends he got someone today.
:o)
"[T]he necessary elements of a case for false imprisonment are a deprivation of the liberty of another without his consent and without legal justification." Montgomery Ward v. Wilson, 664 A.2d 916, 926 (Md. 1995) (quoting Great Atl. & Pac. Tea Co. v. Paul , 261 A.2d 731, 738 (Md. 1970)).
Sounds like a pretty good case to me. I will enjoy hearing Best Buy and the City of Baltimore argue how 9/11 made them jittery about people passing LEGAL TENDER to the point of shackling the man.
9/11...sequential numbers...what a load of horseshit.
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.
THis is UNBELIEVABLE!!! ping
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