Best Buy has Man Arrested for using $2 Bills

[Amnesia]

@steffan,

I cant remember the exact date (I think 1979) the Two Dollar bills were stop being made. But they were made in large quantities. All banks should have them since there is a large amount available, they're just not used in circulation as much as the other bills

[jerzdawg]

@steffan,

I cant remember the exact date (I think 1979) the Two Dollar bills were stop being made. But they were made in large quantities. All banks should have them since there is a large amount available, they're just not used in circulation as much as the other bills

585741692[/snapback]

if you go back to page 3 or 4.. cant remember.. someone posted some info that in 96 and 97 some 150 million $2 bills were made... and then another 100 million were made in 2004..

[GregRC]

i have a 1976 2 dollar bill............

[joseph-]

ok.. so which is it... she thought they were counterfeit or no longer being used...

585741679[/snapback]

My interpretation was that she (the cashier) didn't think they were still in use. Then, when others gathered around, the suspicion that they were counterfeit was brought up. This was then substantiated by the police officer that noted the serial numbers on the bills. So, they arrested the guy until the SS could get on scene to determine the validity of the bills. Sounds like an honest mistake to me. 50% of the blame falls on the guy with the money because he did it trying to be cute, and it bit him in the ass. Now everyone is throwing a fit because his rights were violated.

[yisman]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_dollar_bill

[joseph-]

if you go back to page 3 or 4.. cant remember.. someone posted some info that in 96 and 97 some 150 million $2 bills were made... and then another 100 million were made in 2004..

585741700[/snapback]

Question; Why did the Treasury Department remove the $2 bill from circulation?

Answer; We receive many letters asking why the $2 bill is no longer in circulation. Contrary to the impression of many people, the Treasury Department did not stop circulating the $2 bill. On September 12, 1996, Robert E. Rubin, the 70th Secretary of the Treasury, was presented with a new series $2 bill. The Series 1995 notes were printed at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing's (BEP) Western Currency Facility and bear the seal of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.

The $2 bill remains one of our circulating currency denominations. According to BEP statistics, 590,720,000 Series 1976 $2 bills were printed and as of February 28, 1999, there was $1,166,091,458 worth of $2 bills in circulation worldwide.

The key for successfully circulating the two-dollar bill is for retailers to use them just like any other denomination in their daily operations. In addition, most commercial banks will readily supply their retail customers with these bills if their customers request them in sufficient volume to justify stocking them in their vaults. However, neither the Treasury Department nor the Federal Reserve System can force the distribution or use of any denomination of currency on banks, businesses or individuals.

Perhaps that's why she said she didn't have to accept them?

[drdrew]

Yeah,

One of my friends used to work at Best Buy... According to him, the employees don't work on commission so they don't care what you buy, the computer techs don't know jack about computers and sometimes don't even own one. They mark up a $5000 TV by $2000 or more, and when you buy a computer, they just throw in $70 ink cartidges into your cart when you aren't looking, and so when you go to check out, you won't notice since you are already spending so much. Also, when they have sales, you know how they advertise in circulars on Sunday, they tend not to stock enough of them in the store so that when you get there, they say they ran out. Then they try to sell you something else that's more expensive so its more money for them. Yeah, I don't know why in the world anyone would ever go there, the prices suck, and there's so much deception. Instead use the internet and get the best price, and have it sent to your door! SCREW YOU BEST BUY AND YOUR SLEAZY SALES METHODS!

Drew

[yisman]

...and when you buy a computer, they just throw in $70 ink cartidges into your cart when you aren't looking...

I don't know why, but that just cracks me up.

[Foub]

The main reason why most Americans don't know about the $2 bill is that during WWII the Nazis had a plan to flood the US economy with fake $2 bills and they were stopped for a time, but when they came back most people considered them to be bad luck and thus didn't want to use them.

In Canada we don't have a $1 or $2 bill. They are both coins called a Loonie (A loon on its back) for the $1 coin and the Toonie for the $2 coin. Canadian money is also much more difficult to fake than American money is. So, you could say that our money is loonie toonie. :)

Edited April 7, 2005 by Foub

[joseph-]

Know what else? The resolving power of the human eye is 0.0003 of a radian or an arc of one minute (1/60th of a degree), which corresponds to 100 microns at 10 in. (confused yet?) A micron is a thousandth of a millimeter, hence 100 microns is 0.00397, or less than four thousandths of an inch, the human eye can detect a bright light shining through an aperture of only three or four microns.

What does that have to do with this article? Nothing. So me and drdrew have something in common.

[Echilon]

Bestbuy really deserve to be sued for this.

[APL88]

I feel really bad for the guy, Best Buy may have been in the wrong if his story is true about them saying no installation fee and then saying they never said it, but he should not have tried to spite them and just payed the money in a more usual currency. Not that I am saying he cannot use 2 dollar bills, but he admitted to doing it out of spite.

[betasp]

you would think the lettering on the bill that say "This not is legal tender for all debts, public and private" would have clued someone in.

I actually had this issue at a FedEx location not wanting to take my cash for past bill. They said they didn't take cash, but agreed that I had a debt. I showed them one the dollar bill where it says that above statement. I walked out and wrote them a letter and threatened suit if they touch my credit because they refused to take cash for a debt. I got a letter back from legal asking me to take the letter and the cash to the local office and they would accept my payment.

[lav-chan]

I really really can't stand Best Buy.

[yisman]

you would think the lettering on the bill that say "This not is legal tender for all debts, public and private" would have clued someone in.

I actually had this issue at a FedEx location not wanting to take my cash for past bill. They said they didn't take cash, but agreed that I had a debt. I showed them one the dollar bill where it says that above statement. I walked out and wrote them a letter and threatened suit if they touch my credit because they refused to take cash for a debt. I got a letter back from legal asking me to take the letter and the cash to the local office and they would accept my payment.

585741833[/snapback]

First of all, it's "note". Second of all, that's meaningless. That can be counterfeited as well.

[seafirex]

If i was one of does guy's that got into jail as per the fact they submited a 2$ legal tender bill, i would have sue them also put all the info in the biggest news paper around just to make my self some very good money out of it.

Does people at does stores should be educated.

1)We are told over here in Quebec to be very careful when we have a dought.

2)We are also told not to tell the customer that we suspect them of trying something like that on us but too instead let them know we need to speek in private with them, give a fake reason and bring them with us in the managers office or in the back store to discuss then we tell them once there and no regular customers in presence. then we call the police and all but we dont act like does stories here.

What are does compagnies think do they respect there customers or what.

personaly i think NO

[kerrysl]

While the store may well have had grounds for suspicion, their handling of the matter was deplorable.

Was this man's character knowingly and negligently defamed? I think most reasonable people would say yes. Therefore does he have a case for defamation against the store. I think a good attorney would say yes. If so then he should go for it.

Secondly, in the enlightened nation of the USA, do you have laws against 'wrongful arrest' or 'illegal detainment' like most other civilised western democracies? If so then, then he should definitely be suing the police force for wrongful arrest. Their method of dealing with him also strikes me as way over the top, or are Hollywood police shows actually true to life?

Are not handcuffs only for those people who physically require restraint? I guess if he was beligerent as you might well be then they might well have been needed, however if he willingly submitted to their authority and accompanied them to the police station then that method of dealing with people is very barbaric.

Also he if could produce verifyable identification, and proof of address, why did he need to be arrested until they had evidence or not. Surely one would think that credible evidence should be available before relieving someone of their liberty. Oh sorry, the USA is the place where you only TALK about liberty, not actually PRACTICE it. IF wrongful arrest is an avialable tort, then he should definitely sue.

Also if the enlightened USA, still permits lawful assembly, freedom of speech, and peaceful protest, then I would be organising my friends and picket lining the store, with plackards says "Best Buys has its customers arrested for paying with legal tender". They couldn't claim defamatory action since the protesting statements are verifyably true.

Kerry.

[L3thal Veteran]

Bestbuy really deserve to be sued for this.

585741818[/snapback]

Yes, go infest the courts with more useless lawsuits to further slow down important cases and to waste our tax money :no:

[mikey1001]

Yes, go infest the courts with more useless lawsuits to further slow down important cases and to waste our tax money  :no:

585743399[/snapback]

This is an isolated incident at a specific store, therefore has absolutely nothing to do with class action. Secondly, why would you promote allowing behaviour from a company to go on? Without some puntive damage, even just a public apology in local newspapers, then there is no deterrent to act like this again.

[Tech Star]

That sucks! Poor guy!

[acertim]

This is sure interesting, credits to another forum

PUT YOURSELF in Mike Bolesta's place. On the morning of Feb. 20, he buys a new radio-CD player for his 17-year-old son Christopher's car. He pays the $114 installation charge with 57 crisp new $2 bills, which, when last observed, were still considered legitimate currency in the United States proper. The $2 bills are Bolesta's idea of payment, and his little comic protest, too.

For this, Bolesta, Baltimore County resident, innocent citizen, owner of Capital City Student Tours, finds himself under arrest.

Finds himself, in front of a store full of customers at the Best Buy on York Road in Lutherville, locked into handcuffs and leg irons.

Finds himself transported to the Baltimore County lockup in Cockeysville, where he's handcuffed to a pole for three hours while the U.S. Secret Service is called into the case.

Have a nice day, Mike.

"Humiliating," the 57-year old Bolesta was saying now. "I am 6 feet 5 inches tall, and I felt like 8 inches high. To be handcuffed, to have all those people looking on, to be cuffed to a pole -- and to know you haven't done anything wrong. And me, with a brother, Joe, who spent 33 years on the city police force. It was humiliating."

What we have here, besides humiliation, is a sense of caution resulting in screw-ups all around.

"When I bought the stereo player," Bolesta explains, "the technician said it'd fit perfectly into my son's dashboard. But it didn't. So they called back and said they had another model that would fit perfectly, and it was cheaper. We got a $67 refund, which was fine. As long as it fit, that's all.

"So we go back and pay for it, and they tell us to go around front with our receipt and pick up the difference in the cost. I ask about installation charges. They said, 'No installation charge, because of the mix-up. Our mistake, no charge.' Swell.

"But then, the next day, I get a call at home. They're telling me, 'If you don't come in and pay the installation fee, we're calling the police.' Jeez, where did we go from them admitting a mistake to suddenly calling the police? So I say, 'Fine, I'll be in tomorrow.' But, overnight, I'm starting to steam a little. It's not the money -- it's the threat. So I thought, I'll count out a few $2 bills."

He has lots and lots of them.

With his Capital City Student Tours, he arranges class trips for school kids around the country traveling to large East Coast cities, including Baltimore. He's been doing this for the last 18 years. He makes all the arrangements: hotels, meals, entertainment. And it's part of his schtick that, when Bolesta hands out meal money to students, he does it in $2 bills, which he picks up from his regular bank, Sun Trust.

"The kids don't see that many $2 bills, so they think this is the greatest thing in the world," Bolesta says. "They don't want to spend 'em. They want to save 'em. I've been doing this since I started the company. So I'm thinking, 'I'll stage my little comic protest. I'll pay the $114 with $2 bills.'"

At Best Buy, they may have perceived the protest -- but did not sense the comic aspect of 57 $2 bills.

"I'm just here to pay the bill," Bolesta says he told a cashier. "She looked at the $2 bills and told me, 'I don't have to take these if I don't want to.' I said, 'If you don't, I'm leaving. I've tried to pay my bill twice. You don't want these bills, you can sue me.' So she took the money. Like she's doing me a favor."

He remembers the cashier marking each bill with a pen. Then other store personnel began to gather, a few of them asking, "Are these real?"

"Of course they are," Bolesta said. "They're legal tender."

A Best Buy manager refused comment last week. But, according to a Baltimore County police arrest report, suspicions were roused when an employee noticed some smearing of ink. So the cops were called in. One officer noticed the bills ran in sequential order.

"I told them, 'I'm a tour operator. I've got thousands of these bills. I get them from my bank. You got a problem, call the bank,'" Bolesta says. "I'm sitting there in a chair. The store's full of people watching this. All of a sudden, he's standing me up and handcuffing me behind my back, telling me, 'We have to do this until we get it straightened out.'

"Meanwhile, everybody's looking at me. I've lived here 18 years. I'm hoping my kids don't walk in and see this. And I'm saying, 'I can't believe you're doing this. I'm paying with legal American money.'"

Bolesta was then taken to the county police lockup in Cockeysville, where he sat handcuffed to a pole and in leg irons while the Secret Service was called in.

"At this point," he says, "I'm a mass murderer."

Finally, Secret Service agent Leigh Turner arrived, examined the bills and said they were legitimate, adding, according to the police report, "Sometimes ink on money can smear."

This will be important news to all concerned.

For Baltimore County police, said spokesman Bill Toohey, "It's a sign that we're all a little nervous in the post-9/11 world."

The other day, one of Bolesta's sons needed a few bucks. Bolesta pulled out his wallet and "whipped out a couple of $2 bills. But my son turned away. He said he doesn't want 'em any more."

He's seen where such money can lead.

:no:

[SeaCow]

Yeah my friend told me about this... that is just stupid. If a guy wants to pay with $2 bills he can. :rolleyes:

[dannybeckett]

lol. funny :D

but in england, we dont have ?1 or ?2 bills, we have ?1 and ?2 coins tho;)h ;)

[KayMan2K]

lol. funny :D

but in england, we dont have ?1 or ?2 bills, we have ?1 and ?2 coins tho;)h ;)

585746007[/snapback]

Yeah, we've got $1 coins also. But they weigh down your pocket and never caught on. Paper is light d:)e :)

The US $2 is not normally used. They are rare which is why I don't blame Best Buy for being cautious. But the whole thing went too far.

[AnakinSolo2002]

:wacko:

that's SO rediculous...

seriously? who doesn't know there are $2 bills? however, I did not know that they reproduced some new ones recently.