Monterey County Herald Staff Report
Several boys at Carmel Middle School who were using counterfeit bills to buy goodies from the lunch cart were quickly caught Dec.12, Monterey County sheriff’s deputies reported.
One 12-year-old boy had been printing $1-denomination bills with a Hewlett Packard printer. The boy who did most of the printing handed out the bills to friends at school. After a week of the passing fakes, the assistant principal caught on: The boy made copies of money and printed them on paper that obviously wasn’t currency.
Sheriff’s Sgt. John DiCarlo said a close examination of the bills determined they hadn’t been cut correctly.
“You usually don’t have this happen with kids that young,” he said.
The boy who printed the counterfeits told deputies he was trying to be cool to have fake bills to buy food.
Four boys were cited by the Sheriff’s Office and a printer was removed from one boy’s home. Deputies found $5 bills and $10 bills that had been illegally printed.
The Secret Service, which routinely examines counterfeit money, requested a report from the Sheriff’s Office.
Monterey County Herald (http://www.montereyherald.com/)