Five fake $10 bills passed at The Mix

The manager of The Mix, a local hangout for young people, learned when she made her deposit at the Bank of America Monday morning that someone had spent $50 at The Mix using counterfeit $10 bills.

Diane Wagner, director of media relations for Bank of America in Chicago, said the teller at the bank's northwest branch on Kingshighway noticed the counterfeit money when she was counting out The Mix's deposit.

"Our tellers are trained to look for and pay attention to the dollars received," Wagner said. "With this batch the look and feel of the money did not make sense to her."

The counterfeit money looked bleached, Wagner said, and the paper did not look right. According to Sgt. Rick Schmidt of the Cape Girardeau Police Department, the bills also were not cut straight and did not have the fibers a real bill would have.

The bills were turned over to the U.S. Secret Service, which investigates instances of counterfeit money.

The incident may have been an isolated one; no other reports of bogus bills have reached the Cape Giraradeau Police Department. Schmidt said it's impossible to tell where they might have come from.

Attempts to reach Wendy Lamont, listed on the police report as the person making the deposit, were unsuccessful. The business will have to absorb the cost of the five phony $10 bills.

At most office supply stores there are pens available to detect counterfeit money.