Of All the Places to Pass a Phony....
On April 21, Yancy Terrell Cochran, 35, went to the Scott County, Iowa, Courthouse to pay his friend's bail. He peeled off a number of $50 bills to pay the tab, but a counterfeit bill detection pen alerted to a problem with one of them. Oops.
When Cochran handed criminal court clerk Angelica Kent six $50 bills, she marked them with a pen that checks for counterfeit bills. On real bills, the pen is supposed to make a golden yellow mark. On one of Cochran's bills, the ink turned black. She called the sheriff's department.
"At first glance, it looked real," said Deputy Tara Dinneweth, who responded. "At closer inspection, it proved to be counterfeit." Dinneweth compared all of the $50 bills that Cochran was attempting to pay with and found that two had the same serial number. "It is not advisable to bring that in to pay for fines," she said.
Cochran originally told police that he got the fake $50 bill at a check cashing place, but later allegedly admitted to deputies that he made the counterfeit money at his house. He had another $50 bill which he used to pay his friend's bail, but Cocchran was arrested to take his place.
While searching his home, the sheriff's department found a printer, scanner and paper that is used to make counterfeit money. Cochran was charged with forgery, a felony that carries a sentence of up to five years in prison.
Sure he was the go-to guy to get bailed out. But who's gonna bail him out?
Source: Davenport Quad-City Times
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Most Recent Comments
Posted by Paul, New Zealand on May 15, 2010:
I think the point Robert in Missouri was making that although he has been charged by local law enforcement officers for forgery, ONCE the Feds get involved THEN he faces up to 15 years. And that really hinges on whether the Feds decide it's worth their time to follow up on it, or utilise their resources on something more important, from their point of view of course.
Posted by Carlos, Cincinnati Ohio on May 16, 2010:
Mr Cochran is an example of law enforcement's most effective weapon: half of all people have an IQ of 100 or lower. This makes it less difficult to detect, locate and apprehend criminals of most any type - not all types, but most. Narcissism, pride, and greed help a great deal in catching the rest.
Posted by Mike from Dallas on May 16, 2010:
"People are so preoccupied with the 10% of an idea that's wrong that they ignore the 90% that's right." ~ Charles Kettering, former Vice-President of General Motors Research
So one bill was a phony. At least, five of the six bills were real. It's not like he tried to pass off ALL phony bills. Geez, one lousy oversight and they make a federal case out of it. (Does HTML include tongue-in-cheek tags?)
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Of course it does! It looks like this: ;-) -rc