Fourteen instances of counterfeit bills have been identified in Bloomington in the past two months, according to the Bloomington Police Department.
The bills have been in various dollar amounts including $100, $20, $10 and $5.
Last month, a cashier at Mardon Salon found a counterfeit $10 dollar bill in the company's cash register when she was trying to give a woman change. The salon's manager Brittany Walters says the cashier could tell the bill had an odd consistency.
"We saw that the borders were a lot thinner and the lines just were not matching up with the other dollar bills, so we ended up taking it to one of the banks around here and we had three tellers confirm that it was counterfeit," Walters says.
Captain Joe Qualters says these kinds of things often come in cycles but his office is working with the U.S. Secret Service, the federal agency in charge of counterfeit crimes, to identify the source.
"On a local level, we impose a state charge when we are fortunate enough to catch the individuals involved," he says. "That charge would be theft and that is primarily because the retailer has been bilked out of a service or a product and been given fake money."
Qualters says counterfeiters most often use their money at businesses during busy hours when the workers are trying to serve customers quickly and do not pay much attention to the money they are handed.