Teenagers Busted in Bogus Bill Scheme
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.
|
