By: Lydia Crawley
The Parsons Advocate
Counterfeit cash is making the rounds in Parsons, according to Parsons Chief of Police Kevin Keplinger. Keplinger said that there has been a recent influx of “Movie Money” to the area and local stores are seeing more of the fake bills in various denominations. “So we just wanted to remind businesses that if you are dealing with cash, to kind of keep an eye on what you are actually taking in,” Keplinger said.
Keplinger said this was a problem that arose in the area a few years ago, as well. “A few years ago we saw an influx of what you would term ‘Movie Money,’”Keplinger said. “You know, U.S. currency bills, but they are stamped movie use only. On the backside typically, they’ll have some Chinese characters on them.”
According to Keplinger, the issue a few years ago surrounded an influx of 100s and 50s. “What we saw then were mainly 100’s and 50’s,” Keplinger said. “We’re starting to see those come back. We’ve recovered a few here in town.”
However, today Keplinger said he is seeing an influx of smaller denominations in the area. “But what they are doing now is they are dropping the denominations,” Keplinger said. “We’re seeing 20’s, 10’s because you get a 50 dollar bill, you check it. You get a 10 dollar bill, it goes into the till.”
According to Keplinger there are several differences in the bills including feel and the writing on the bills themselves. The front of the bills will state”For Motion Picture Purposes” while the back will also state “ For Motion Picture Purposes” but also the phrases “ In Props We Trust” and “Prop Cash Central.” An example supplied by Chief Keplinger for examination also showed the phrase propcashcentral.com on the right hand corner of the back. “The feel is different, but if you are not really paying attention to it, its fairly easy to get those to slip in,” Keplinger said.
Keplinger said that approximately $1,000 in $100 bills was recovered in Parsons recently. “We recovered probably a thousand dollars worth of $100 bills a couple of weeks ago,” Keplinger said.
Should anyone find any Movie Money bills, please report it to the Parsons Police Department at (304) 478-3060.
