Posted on 12/15/2005 10:22:40 AM PST by kingattax
School Cashier Turned Money In ---
(CBS) GARY, Ind. A cafeteria worker at an elementary school in northwest Indiana thought it was odd that a 4th grader was paying for lunch with a $20.
According to our news partner, the Post-Tribune, the fourth grader from Gary tried to pay for his food at the school cafeteria with a $20 bill. The money looked real enough, but since kids don’t normally flash such a large wad around school, the cashier turned it in.
Turns out, that's not the only thing that was odd .The cash was counterfeit.
The 10-year-old boy admitted he made the cash on his home computer. Police say he enlisted the help of another boy and a girl to help him pass off the cash:
"We were very surprised. We're working with the Secret Service and they say this is the youngest they've ever seen. And, some of it is pretty good quality for a 10-year-old to do by himself," said Det. Cpl. Darlene Breitenstein with the Gary Police Department.
But there were several giveaways that the bills weren't quite right. All of the serial numbers were the same. Some of the bills weren't cut too well, and the paper didn't feel right.
The three children face charges of forgery and theft.
I was thinking the same thing. If that kid could put those skills towards something positive and honest, he could really amount to something besides a future stay in prison.
That raises a question. Is it illegal to print fake money, but never try to spend it? If not, if you are robbed of it...
He probably doesn't know what the word "counterfeiting" means, let alone why it's bad.
You must be one of the 1% that the other 99% are giving a bad name!
as a parent of 11 and 9 (and 8) y.o. boys... they're not all that bright on a shockingly frequent number of occasions. especially when colluding in a pact.
the schemes they come up with and the detail i have to go into to explain why they are wrong can be amazing.
There are, like, five other FReeper lawyers/law students.
I see a career in this kid's future.
He made an "A" on that economics project!
Bernanke's New Apprentice. ;)
What skill? He scanned an image of a $20 bill into a graphic editor on a computer. He printed it out on card stock and wrinkled it a bit. If that's skill, then I'm the King of Jamaica.
Howard Dimmer than Dim Dean has put him on a retainer for the 2008 elections ' He is to head the new vote generating Department.
"If the kid doesn't know it's wrong, he needs to be in special ed."
Whaddaya mean? This kid is a perfect example of the amoral public school system. The ACLU bitches and whines whenever we say that morals should be taught in the schools and here is the product of their efforts: an amoral 10 year old kid. I hope the ACLU is proud.
Yes.
C'mon. By ten you better damn well know what's right and wrong. Nevertheless, at that age one is trying to see how far to push the limit.
I was working on the farm to "make" twenties when I was ten.
"That raises a question. Is it illegal to print fake money...?"
Yes, but that doesn't stop the Federal Reserve from doing it every day.
But you should see his fake ID. It shows he's 27.
I remember when BART (SF Bay Area Transit with mag card readers) users figured out how to game the tickets. You heated a blank ticket and then pressed it with a $20 ticket and as the hot magnetics cooled it gave you two $20 tickets, repeat as often as desired.
It was a cleaver use of magnetization and it forced the BART system to go to a higher temp material that would erase the $20 ticket rather than allow it to be copied...
But we all understood that it was stealing even if the entity being cheated was something as disliked as a mass transit system.
If you think Federal Reserve Notes are worthless, you can send me all of yours.
Oh...in that case I will type slowly and use small words :-) (it's a joke. my profession has its idiosynchrocies too)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.