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."
O definitely. Me too. LOL
At first I thought it was cool 'cause they were becoming rare. THEN I thought it would be a hoot to pass one to some pimply faced kid who had never seen one. I tried that at In & Out this past trip to the mainland. Didn't faze them at all.
NOW I'm really freaked if I try this. Of course, it would pay off my law loans really fast..
Jiminey! Imagine if he had tried to pay with silver dollars. I once paid with a silver dollar and had to show the clerk it was not a quarter.
How do you get them?
There are marking pens that can differentiate currency paper. Most often used on $50 and up, but can be used on any bill.
http://www.centercoin.com/coin_supplies/counterfeit_detector.htm <-- Check it out
"If that had happened to me, Best Buy and the city would be paying for my house.....at least.
I don't know about the house but I KNOW I would have a nice new big-screen plasma HDTV!!
The pen ink changes color if the paper is wood based. Genuine bills are printed on cotton rag.
a bank.
They're actually somewhat common where I live because Monticello gives the $2 bill back to you as change, so I get the best responses farther away from town (like Northern Virginia, for example).
I was thinking about the IQ level of the employee. I bet a $2 bill (I have a small collection of these) that the Best Buy clerk didn't know there was such a thing as a $2 bill, just a hunch.
From 1776 to the present day, we do in fact live in a very "different" America. I wonder what the original Colonists would have to say on this particular issue.
Today's law enforcement agencies are not much more than a cross-section of their environments.
Some cops (I would like to think most) are better than others but it's fair to say that there's a small percentage of police officers (all with 9mm hand guns strapped to their waists!) who should not have graduated from HS... much less the police academy.
The sad and telling truth about this episode, however, is that there were supposed to be supervisors, SGTs and LTs (and maybe even a Captain) somehwere along the line that could have brought a measure of sanity and common sense to the situation. Where were they in the process of calling the Secret Service?
ok... riiigggghhhhhhhhttt. What idiot would presume someone would counterfeit $2 bills and on top of that print them with sequential numbers? With government skooling, we will be a third world country in another generation. I fear for our Republic.
I think you should go buy a receiver, or some speakers, something sizeable, with some $2 bills. Have someone around to surreptitiously videotape events, while you're at it.
Just a guess mind you, but as I read it, Best Buy will be off the hook. Unless they made a citizens arrest, the cops are on the hook. A reasonable action to take in this situation would be a phone call to the Secret Service. If an agent can come to a jail, he can come to a store, because it's not like it was 3 A.M. Another reasonable action to take is to confiscate the money and book it into evidence, identify who it came from, write a report, and give it back later. I would guess, yes, this is definitely a false imprisonment lawsuit.
Cower in the face of power is my motto! Yep, any time someone questions me, I change my mind. No sense in causing a stir.
The Eisenhower Dollar coin is an oddity. Probably not many young people have seen one. I collect them and would never spend one. Although it is legal tender, it does not look real.
I suspect Best Buy is going to have to pay him off with something bigger than $2 bills.
Maryland Cultural Ping.
touche!
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