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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 was just on that thread.
Someday, the government will push just a little too hard, and I pray the people will push back!
Well one more reason for me not to go into Maryland. To arrest this fellow for this is beyond absurd.
You twisted FReeper!
:)
(I would trade places with him in a minute. I suspect he is going to come into some money in the future.)
Are you psychic? LOL!
Then watch out for cops bearing handcuffs. :^)
During WW2, the Nazis produced an excellent counterfeit $1 bill (you can tell how long ago THAT was) and passed them to their operatives in the States through Mexico. The Rio Grande Valley residents used the $2 bill to foil the Germans.
The reason the ink looks smeared is that the back of the bill shows the signing of the Declaration of Independence, and has a lot greater area of green ink than other bills. Looks smeared without being so.
My husband likes to use the $2. bills also. I thought it was a bit strange but I never worried he was going to get arrested over it.
I used a $2. bill on a trip to Canada and the store clerk questioned me about it but finally believed me that it was real money.
They stay in business because you don't hear about the smart ones. It's like airplane crashes: for every crash you hear about, there are hundreds of thousands of safe takeoffs and landings.
Yes. "These bills are legal tender for all debt public and private"
They were down right stupid. They should have called the bank. Or anyone over the age of thirty.
Anyone know why they mark bills at Best Buy?
I do that too. LOL
Just to mess with people's heads.
I wonder if he has a false imprisonment claim.
LOL
Kinda like "we arrested him for "passing" legal tender because we are so distracted by the threat of global thermonuclear war."
Front Face
Back Face
Older ones have this Back Face
That's what motivates me.
Kinda reminds me of when I was on the Sam Houston Tollway in Houston. First toll booth I pulled up to was the change lane, where the worker gave me dollar coins instead of bills as part of the change. At the next set of booths I went through the exact change lane, threw in a dollar coin and quarters. Yep, the stupid automated toll machine wouldn't credit the dollar coin, though it sure swallowed it. Nice way of padding profits.
When he successfully sues for idiocy, et al, the taxpayers will ultimately get the bill.
Again, the only winners are the lawyers!
I suspect that will become common at that store as this story spreads ... if they were here in Atlanta I would be going there right now to buy something with a sequential order of $2 bills ... and laughing my ass off the whole time (but then I am easily amused.)
How could you guess that using a $2 bill would get you arrested?
There are marking pens that can differentiate currency paper. Most often used on $50 and up, but can be used on any bill.
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