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."
Justified lawsuits-against-freedom-harming--idiots ping.
In this case, good attorneys are good to have around.
Whoever was manager at that store, ain't.
I'd be furious if I was Best Buy executive staff.
What is the tie between 9-11 and $2.00 bills?
Any time you want to move back HellInAHandCart...
LOL! They would have probably seen nothing queer about it if he had paid with three dollar bills.
---"What is the tie between 9-11 and $2.00 bills?"---
Imagine if you bought pot with $2 bills! You're practically GIVING the U.S. over to Al Queda!!!
;-)
I'm scratching my head on that one. WTH!
What do $2 bills have to do with a terrorist attack.
None...other than the fact that "9-11" can be used to justify nearly anything. ;)
I would've liked to be a fly on the wall with those Secret Service agents. They must have caused a hernia trying to suppress a belly laugh at those moronic rubes!
Back when I used to tend bar I had a guy ask mr to change a fifteen dollar bill. I gave hime two sevens and a Susan B.
It looks like false imprisonment on the surface, but as long as there is probable cause, law enforcement can detain us subjects.
I can't believe they put that line in the story....maybe they had a sentence quota to fill. :-)
This episode is clearly attributable to the pro-life right wing Christian movement.
They might even require ID and endorse the bill on the back. It is bad training or total non-training of the store clerks. Some stores are good at training, but some stores have to hire the untrainable.
Just don't try and pay at the drive-thru with a Sacajawea coin....the kids have never seen 'em before. Your food will get cold while it all gets sorted out.
Recently there was a clue given in Final Jeopardy which said roughly this is the only building that appears twice on US banknotes. The correct question was "What is Independence Hall?" You had to know it appears on the $2 back with an interior view and on the $100 with an exterior view.
What a dunce they are for trying to connect the two.
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