Wave of Bogus Bills Hits Stores In Cambridge Area

A rash of bogus-bill passing has brought counterfeit ten and twenty dollar bills into the hands of merchants throughout the Greater Boston area.

The Secret Service of the U.S. Treasury Department is investigating the matter, according to Frank McDermott, Special Agent in charge of the Secret Service.

Investigators have traced all the bills back to three sets of plates of two tens and a twenty. A photo-engraving process was used.

Omnivore, Brigham's, the Coop, Hungry Charlie's, Leavitt and Pierce and Cahaly's have all received fraudulent bills in the last month.

Rusty Brown

The counterfeit bills received by Hungry Charlie's are of extremely poor quality, according to Richard Stasiak, manager of the restaurant. "They're kind of rusty brown in color," he said.

Stasiak went on to speculate as to who might be responsible for the bills. "It's those goddamned street kids. They come on as being beautiful and wonderful and flower-children and all, but really they're just thieves. This town is disgusting," he said.

John Rassler, who works at Leavitt and Pierce, came across one fake ten dollar bill the night before last. He also said the bill he picked up was extremely poor in quality.

"It was really terrible. The detail and color were very bad, and the picture looked more like a cartoon than anything else," he said.

John Mcgrath, Supervisor of the Money Department at the Harvard Trust Company, has received several counterfeit bills, all of poor quality. He has noted a common quirk in many of the bills he has received.

"They're all ripped, and put back together with scotch tape. Maybe it's an attempt to make them look older," he said.

The general feeling among Harvard Square merchants is that the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas is prime time for bogus-bill passing. Many of them have gone through similar rashes of bad-bill passing before, at this time of year, although most merchants feel they could recognize a counterfeit bill by flaws in its size, color, feeling or detail.

McDermott said that the Secret Service's attempt to collect all false bills was proving successful.

$25,000 Worth

"We have made several big seizures of these bills (around $25,000), and through these seizures, we have been able to make several arrests," said McDermott.

He said that this incidence of badbill passing was not in any way connected with the Medford-based counterfeit ring broken up last December.