This semester alone, Lt. Dan Karrick and Chief Bob Heighes of the Eastern Michigan University Police Department have dealt with six instances of fraudulent money being used around campus.
Karrick said the first incident happened Oct. 5 and the last episode occurred Nov. 14.
He said the dates could be misleading though, because it takes a while to count the money and transfer it to the central cash areas.
Karrick also said the counterfeit money has been found through various deposits across campus and there is a machine at the cash office that detects the counterfeit bills.
“We don’t have a suspect or a person of interest just yet,” Karrick said.
Regarding the fraudulent money incidents for this semester, Heighes said, “It has happened before—over a year ago. The incidents now, they’re not a huge amount of money so we don’t have a huge problem.”
Karrick agreed and said the total has only come up to $81. He said the person or people using the counterfeit bills have even passed a fake $1 bill at one point.
There are many consequences for using counterfeit bills: imprisonment, fines, confiscation of property that was used to counterfeit, paying restitution and a mark on one’s record permanently.
Karrick gave an example of how using counterfeit bills could hurt more than just the person using it.
“You go to the store and buy a pop with a $5 bill that’s a counterfeit,” he said. “They don’t catch it. You walk out with your pop and $3 in change. I go in and buy a pop, give them a 20.
They’re going to give me, you know, $18 in change. I might get your counterfeit dollar or $5 bill. Now I go pass it someplace, unknowingly, and somebody else passes it.”
He said with the large amount of cash the university takes in, the counterfeit bills might happen to become entangled in the batch.
Karrick also said the newer money being printed in the U.S. has been designed to have anti-counterfeiting features to it so it will be easier to detect.
Karrick said the department treats the counterfeit bills situation like any other investigation.
“We take all of the information and go out and interview people who might have information about it,” he said. “If we can pinpoint the cashier who received the counterfeit money, they might be able to get a description of whoever paid with the counterfeit bills. Then, they continue the investigation to see if that person knowingly used the money. If they did it knowingly, that adds to the crime, if not, that’s a different story.”
The department also has connections with other jurisdictions, and they work together when counterfeit money cases begin to spread.
Karrick said after his department’s initial investigation, they will forward the money to the Detroit Secret Service for comparisons to see how it has been made, they look at serial numbers and put everything together to target the bigger ring that might be in operation.
Karrick said people usually go into the area of making counterfeit bills because it is “easy money.”
Karrick said the department is looking into training cashiers in different areas of the campus to help identify fraudulent bills.
“If they can identify at the time of the passing [of the money] that will greatly enhance our investigation,” he said.
For more information or to report incidents of possible counterfeit money on campus, contact the EMU police department at 734-487-1222.
