Bainbridge Public Safety has responded to multiple calls from merchants throughout the city who have received counterfeit bills over the past month and now they are working to identify the source of the bills.

“We’ve got a lot going around not only Bainbridge, but Thomasville’s had quite a bit and Colquitt has had had quite a bit,” BPS investigator Chip Nix said. “Those are the only two agencies that necessarily have networked with me on it. In the past month, we’ve probably had at least 15 counterfeit bills come in from different calls. It’s been an influx.”

Store owners and those working cash registers throughout Bainbridge and Decatur County can identify the counterfeit bills by holding them up to the light and looking for holograms, which won’t be present on the fake bills, looking at the edges of the bills, which will be rougher on the fakes, and checking the overall look and feel of the bills as they are being printed on a different material.

“The print quality’s worse,” Nix said. “If you look at the paper, it’s kind of that old cardstock paper. They’re not bleaching these bills. They’re not doing a bleach reprint type method. It’s more (of a) cardstock.”

BPS recently made its first arrest related to the influx of counterfeit money when Adrian Moore was found to have a large quantity of counterfeit bills on his person following an arrest for shoplifting at Family Dollar.

Moore was arrested on Saturday, May 14, after officers responded to a call that a male suspect was stuffing diapers into his pants.

“He got caught shoplifting,” Nix said. “He had quiet a bit of counterfeit currency, about $1,500, and he had a stolen Glock pistol and he’s also a convicted felon and he had a possession of marijuana as well.”

The case will be turned over to the Secret Service on Monday, and Nix said that they hope to federally prosecute Moore.

The investigation is ongoing according to Nix, and he cautioned store owners to be on the lookout for counterfeit bills and to check the Secret Service’s website for more information on how to identify which bills are real and which are fake.

“If you’re taking multiple bills, just kind of scan it to make sure they aren’t the same serial number,” Nix said.