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When police burst into Angelina Nickerson's bedroom
Friday afternoon, they say they found the 17-year-old and two
friends making copies of a $20 bill on a color Hewlett Packard
DeskJet F380 All-In-One printer.
The copies were incredibly well done, Harwich police Detective
Sgt. David Jacek. The teenagers had managed to get the front and
back of the bill lined up perfectly to print on both sides of a
single sheet of paper, he said. Although the Secret Service is
investigating the teen's computer for software that may have
helped make the funny money, it appears the accused trio used
nothing more complicated than the printer, scissors and white
computer paper, Orleans police Detective Kevin Higgins said.
The effort could have won them a prize in art class. But this
was no school project, according to police.
Nickerson of Harwich, along with Michael Quest, 17, of Harwich
and Manuel Gomes, 17, of Dennis — all of whom are either out of
school or attend night school — were making counterfeit $20
bills that have been fooling store clerks in Orleans, Harwich
and Dennis for about a month, Jacek said.
Through an investigation with the Secret Service, the Orleans,
Dennis and Harwich police were able to obtain search warrants
for at least two of the teens' homes Friday. They were all found
in Nickerson's bedroom Friday afternoon, with copies of a bill
coming out of the printer and fake money scattered on the floor,
Jacek said.
Nickerson's parents were home at the time and had no idea what
was going on in the bedroom, Jacek said.
If found guilty of conspiracy, possession of counterfeit
currency and creating counterfeit currency, the teenagers face
more than 10 years in prison, according to Higgins.
Despite the severity of the criminal penalties, teenagers often
use home computer equipment to print fake money, Special Agent
William Cameron of the Secret Service told the Times in 2001. It
may or may not be a trend on Cape Cod right now, Jacek said.
Based on past cases, counterfeiting by teens tends to come in
waves, the Harwich detective said. "Kids hear about something
that works, and then someone else tries it," he said.
Nickerson, Gomes and Quest are known to police, Jacek said.
Harwich police arrested Quest recently for assault with a
dangerous weapon, threatening to commit a crime and vandalism,
according to the Times court report.
Until their scheduled arraignment tomorrow at Orleans District
Court, Quest is being held at the Barnstable County Correctional
Facility in Bourne on $1,000 bail. Nickerson is being held on
$500 bail. Gomes was released on personal recognizance.
The varying bail amounts are related to the degree of
culpability, Jacek said.
Detective Higgins said the teens' fake bills were passed in six
to eight different locations in Orleans and escaped the
cashiers' detection in all but three cases.
In Harwich, the fake $20s turned up at a CVS on Dec. 14. In that
case, a woman used a fake $20 to buy a hypodermic syringe. The
CVS clerks didn't notice the bad bill until the bank notified
the pharmacy, Jacek said. The next day, the store manager was
more alert and caught Christine Alten and Brock Bobisink, both
30 and residing in Brewster, trying to use another fake bill, he
said. Alten and Bobisink pleaded innocent to counterfeiting
charges and their case is pending.
Police catching the alleged manufacturers of the bogus bills in
the act is a rare strike of good luck, Higgins said. Most often,
fake money isn't detected until it's counted at a bank, he said.
Even when someone is caught passing a counterfeit bill, it's
usually an innocent person who obtained the cash accidentally,
according to the Orleans detective.
Either way, counterfeiters are difficult to track down, Higgins
said.
"So being able to find the manufacturing point is a big plus,"
he said.
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