JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A customer at the Mandarin Jimmy John's paid with a counterfeit $100 bill that was described by police officers as "one of the best they have ever seen," the co-owner said Monday.
But by the time Alan Eberhart, the co-owner of the sandwich restaurant on San Jose Boulevard, discovered the bill was fake, it was too late.
"A gentleman came in and bought a sandwich and a cookie, paid for it with a $100 bill, which is out of the ordinary. The girls checked it out and everything seemed fine," Eberhart said.
Not long after, Eberhart said, he realized that something wasn't quite right.
"A couple hours later I came in, noticed it in the drawer and for some reason did a double take on it. Check it out a little further, and it turns out it was counterfeit," Eberhart said.
Eberhart told News4Jax the most astonishing part was that the cashier had checked the bill for a hologram and tested it with a counterfeit detector pen, and it had passed both tests.
The owners filed a police report with the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office.
"I was surprised. You know, I don't know much about the technology out there, but even the police that showed up said it was one of the best they have ever seen," Eberhart said.
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Gil Smith, News4Jax crime and safety analyst, said there's no cheap way to deal with the expensive problem.
"Counterfeit bills are somewhat common throughout the United States, not just in this area. People have so many different ways of making counterfeit bills, sometimes large scale-operations, or just a small-scale operation. They are making them," Smith said.
Counterfeiters go to great lengths to make bills tougher to detect, Smith said.
"What they'll do, sometimes, is they'll take a small denomination of a bill, like a $1 or a $5 bill and bleach them and then they'll print on top of that paper. So when you test it with a pen, it'll pass," Smith said.
Police continue to look for the customer who was captured on surveillance video paying with the bill. Anyone who recognizes him is asked to call the Sheriff's Office at 904-630-0500.