PORT TOWNSEND — A clerk at a Port Townsend convenience store was handed what was believed to be another counterfeit $100 on Sunday but refused it, authorities said Monday.
“We didn’t accept it and called the police,” said Roger Ramey, store manager at Penny Saver Mart, 2140 E. Sims Way.
Ramey said the man who had it fit the description of a suspect who passed at least seven other fake bills last week in Port Townsend, most of them to merchants in the downtown historic district.
‘It was the same guy’
Ramey said recent news coverage convinced the clerk not to accept the bill.
“It appears, based on the same description, that it was the same guy,” Port Townsend Police Sgt. Ed Green said.
The bogus bill-passer was described as a short, thin Hispanic man in his mid- to early 20s who acts politely and was friendly.
“The individual is probably still around,” Green said Monday.
Seattle police, meanwhile, have arrested and jailed two suspects who were passing counterfeit $100 bills in that city over the weekend.
It was too soon Monday to confirm if they are connected to the Port Townsend crimes.
Seattlepi.com reported Sunday that Seattle police arrested a man early Saturday evening for passing a counterfeit $100 bill in a department store on the 500 block of Pine Street.
Police found 15 fake $100 bills on the man. And they suspect that he might have passed one or more fake $100 bills earlier Saturday at a Northgate Mall department store.
Police turned the man over to the U.S. Secret Service.
Caught on video
The Port Townsend suspect was captured on a security video camera at the Mad Hatter, one of the Water Street businesses hit, and Green said a photo from the video might be released later this week.
Green said the man was last seen leaving downtown in a white 2006 Ford Aerostar van.
Green encouraged merchants to play it safely and examine large bills carefully, even rejecting them.
Other merchants reporting being handed bogus bills last week included McDonald’s on East Sims Way at Haines Street, Artisans on Taylor and Vagabond Arts on Taylor Street, and Earthenworks, Mad Hatter & Co., Port Townsend Gallery and Wildernest outdoor store on Water Street.
________
Port Townsend-Jefferson County Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.