Beebe police battling counterfeit currency cases

BEEBE, AR - They withdrew $100 from the bank and found out their money was fake. Beebe Police are battling a string of counterfeit currency cases and say the victims aren't just local businesses.

Beebe Police detective Jeremy Weeks says he's learning more about fake cash the last three weeks that he has his entire career, showing FOX16 various counterfeit bills he’s received

"The outer bands are crooked on this one with the wrong color, even wrong type of paper," Weeks says.

Fake $20 bills and phony $100 bills have been making their way through the White County city since early January.

Police say someone is passing them first at fast food joints like Sonic and Taco Bell. Then police say tellers at First Security Bank found a counterfeit bill in a night deposit.

And detectives say they learned more when they came to the Knights Grocery and found somebody trying to pass a $100 bill. Turns out that person was not trying to intentionally deceive anyone police say, they received the bill from a bank in Cabot but most likely they're going to lose it.

"When you get a fake bill we confiscate it, hold it for evidence, and give it to the secret service. Usually you're just out that money," Weeks says.

Weeks knows he has more work to do trying to stop whoever is passing fake bills in Beebe.

"This is pretty unusual for us to have this many and I'm sure we'll have more to come," Weeks says.

Weeks says he's hoping possible surveillance from one of the locations could shed some information as to the identity of who's passing the bills.

Counterfeiting currency is a felony. It is punishable by up to 20 years in federal prison and a $1000 fine.