COUNTERFEIT BILLS CIRCULATING IN CAPE GIRARDEAU AREA

These cut-up $20 bills were discovered in the trash and are believed to be part of a local counterfeiting operation.

Several hundred dollars in counterfeit currency has been passed around the Cape Girardeau area over the last week, law enforcement agencies reported.

The bulk of counterfeiting evidence was discovered on Thursday when a man noticed a large number of mutilated $20 bills in a trash container at a mobile home park on Route W, said Lt. David James of the Cape Girardeau County sheriff's office.

A resident at the mobile home park had discovered the bills shortly after midnight on Thursday and turned them over to the manager of the park, who called the sheriff's office. The inside portion of the bills had been cut out, leaving the white borders like a frame. The incident was reported to the U.S. Secret Service in St. Louis, which sent an agent to Cape Girardeau Thursday to investigate, James said.

Later on Thursday morning, sheriff's deputies stopped and searched the garbage truck that had picked up trash at the mobile home park. A total of approximately $1,400 in mutilated $20 bills was found with the garbage, James said.

It's likely that whoever cut up the currency will take the corners of the bills and affix them to $1 bills, giving them the appearance of $20s, James said. These bills are called "raised money."The technique is rarely seen in counterfeiting now, Cape Girardeau police said.

The remainder of the bills could be exchanged at banks for replacement $20s, James said. U.S. Treasury policy is to replace any damaged bill with a new one as long as 51 percent or more of the original is returned.

Whoever mutilated the $20s probably became scared of getting caught and threw the bills' borders into the trash container, James said.

About $400 in counterfeit $20s have been reported since Monday to Cape Girardeau police. Some of the bills had similar serial and series numbers as several counterfeits that turned up in June and July, Cpl. Kevin Orr said.

Almost half of all the counterfeit bills were reported by Rufus Mudsucker's restaurant and lounge, Orr said.

One way for businesses to defend themselves against counterfeiting is through marking pens that turn certain colors on currency. A person draws a line on a suspect bill, and if the mark is clear or yellow, the money is genuine. If the mark is dark gray, brown or black, the bill is probably counterfeit, Orr said.

Many area retailers carry the pens, which cost $12 for a pack of three, he said.