A pair of 19-year-old Cheney residents were arrested on state forgery charges Sunday evening, and now face potential federal charges after they tried to shell out a counterfeit $100 bill to purchase turtle food.
The two were tripped up when they attempted to pass the phony bill at Evergreen Pets on East Sprague and employees recognized that the bill was a counterfeit.
Sonnie Antaraliclaude Woods Jr., 1100 Elm Street, and Miranda Frances Smith, 200 Betz Road, were arrested Sunday evening after being interviewed by Spokane Valley Police officer Chad Ruff and a U.S. Treasury investigator.
The incident began about 4:30 p.m. when Ruff was called to the pet store. An employee then pointed out Smith who had tried to pass him a counterfeit $100 bill.
Ruff had the woman exit the store and interviewed her at length. Her story was inconsistent about where she had obtained the bill and what she had spent the afternoon doing.
During his investigation, Ruff learned from employees that Smith had been accompanied by Woods, who had left the store on foot shortly after the officer contacted Smith.
Ruff used Smith's cellular phone to call Woods and get him to return. In interviews with Woods, the officer learned that the two had been to more businesses with Smith admitting to using some more of the fake $100 bills.
Ruff called for federal assistance and Secret Service Agent Greg Ross arrived.
Ruff and Ross eventually learned that Woods had obtained 35 counterfeit $100 bills and had provided some of them to Smith to pass. She collected $20 for each bill she successfully laundered.
The investigators found three more counterfeit bills inside a Toyota that Smith and Woods had driven to the pet store. They also found evidence that the couple had shopped earlier at several other area businesses.
Deputies went to those firms and recovered two more counterfeit bills from a Dairy Queen and Dollar Store. One of the bills had a different serial number than the one used at Evergreen Pet.
Ross said that there have been more than 250, $100 bills passed with the same serial number as the one seized at Evergreen. He said there have been more than 200 bills containing the second serial number passed in Spokane and in the Antioch, Calif. area.
Investigation into the matter is ongoing.
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