Man arrested, cuffed after using $2 bills

Wow.
For three hours nobody at the Cockeysville PD could figure out whether $2 bills are legal tender? It took someone from the Secret Service to educate them, and then they tried to blame it on Osama Bin Laden? What kind of idiots are these people? I don't expect a Best Buy clerk to........... No wait, I do expect a cashier to be able to recognize legal tender. It seems that would be an important job qualification.

I hope Mr. Bolesta has a field day with this one. What a bunch of incompetent arrogant ignoramuses. :mad:
 
This story is similar to the one circulating on the net a few years ago about the guy buying 2 tacos at Taco Bell late one evening. All he had for cash was one $50 and one $2 bill. The dialog was amusing as neither the cashier nor the night manager knew it was good! He ended up with a free drink & apple pie out of it IIRC.

Isn't there a law that says if you pay in a legal currency and they refuse it, the debt is voided?
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Yep, there is, in a round about sort of way. U.S. Currency is THE legal tender in the U.S. and refusal to accept it is a waiver of your debt. Consult a lawyer to determine if there are valid exceptions (i.e. apartment houses refuse cash routinely due to security concerns, but I'm not sure that's a valid exemption but it may be in your lease to pay by some form of check).

For what it's worth, $2 bills are given out here as change when you pay your admission to certain gun shows. And rumor has it that in the late 1800's a lot of cowboys carried their "mad money" folded & rolled up in the empty cylinder of their sidearms...the one under the hammer.

I routinely try to keep a couple of $2 bills with me if I can, just to tweak the noses of those people who think "The Simpsons" is a quality TV show.

The only "good" thing about this is the few times I've been around when a cashier is counting out excess change and you hear *clunk*, *clunk*, *pinnng*! That's when you ask to see the coin and pay them the face value for a silver coin. Generally I tell them that it's "cracked" or "hollow" and they shrug. Picked up a couple of nice dimes & quarters that way. :D
 
"It's as good as a promissory note and a legal document."

That's because a check IS a promissory note.

It's your promise that you will A) pay the person, B) have money in the account to cover the payment.

In some ways, no different than an IOU written at a poker game.
 
I routinely try to keep a couple of $2 bills with me if I can, just to tweak the noses of those people who think "The Simpsons" is a quality TV show.
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DOH!

It should frighten people that the valedictorian of my high school class graduated having demonstrated in our senior Advanced Placement English class that she didn't know the difference between the United States Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, or at least had suffered enough of a brain fart to conclude that "We the People," was the opening statement of the Declaration. I certainly do, but then, there is probably a reason I am a Political Science major as well. There was a recent topic on here titled "Biggest Threat to the US" or something along those lines. I didn't reply to it because I couldn't decide if my kin's apparent willingness to remain voluntarily ignorant (stupid) and apathetic of their rights or the frightening trend to openly discard much of these rights for a little percieved safety was more dangerous. Now I think they are closely related if not one-and-the-same. Too many these days either don't know their rights, the history, the founding, or the workings of their government, or take it all for granted and because of this, the personal liberties they should be guarding with their lives are being tossed into the wind for the simple satisfaction of having a beaurocrat tell them how much safer they are.

Sorry about the tangent. As for Best Buy, I agree, sue the pants off them, and the police station. Not to would be to reward their stupidity, and thus to condone it.
 
If anyone needs proof that it was a big mistake to protect the idiots from the sabertooth tigers, well, there you have it.

What this planet really needs is a 20-foot flying predator.



PS: Don't forget, kiddies: All of the myriad stars of that little passion play can vote! :D
 
If I posted this once I will post it again. The Baltimore police do not seem to be the brightest bulbs on the tree. I would love to see a study for Baltimore.

Also this is not a first for best buy here. There have been other incidents.

The chief selling point for professional policing seems to be the idea that sworn government agents are more competent crime solvers than grand juries, private prosecutors, and unpaid volunteers. But this claim disintegrates when the realities of police personnel are considered. In 1998, for example, forty percent of graduating recruits of the Washington, D.C. police academy failed the comprehensive exam required for employment on the force and were described as "practically illiterate" and "borderline-retarded."196 As a practical matter, police are more dependent upon the public than the public is dependent upon police.197

196 Tucker Carlson, Washington's Inept Police Force, WALL ST. J., Nov. 3, 1993, at A19.

197 See SILBERMAN, supra note 6, at 297. Silberman points out that New York City police solved only two percent of robbery cases in which a witness could not identify an offender or the offender was not captured at the scene. See id.
 
""She looked at the $2 bills and told me, 'I don't have to take these if I don't want to"


i once bought a coke in a dollar store and tried to pay with one of those sacagewea dollar coins, the guy(an middle eastern type, big surprise there huh?) told me he wouldnt accept those, that nobody wanted to get them back in change. i told him i would take them anytime,told him that they are legal tender and that "you WILL accept it", and that if he didnt i would report him to the authorities. he took it.

i would sue the crap out of that best buy store.
 
if he would have used a stolen credit card there would not have been even an eye blinked. but cash, whoa buddy, what do ya think you're doing!
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Well, I can tell you why they wouldn't bat their little eyes... with credit card fraud, the store still gets the money from their credit card processor, the only people who lose out on it are Visa and other name Credit Cards.

So which do you think a store would prefer... credit card fraud, or cash fraud. They take a hit and loss on the cash, but with credit, they get their money.
 
It's already here

"What this planet really needs is a 20-foot flying predator."

It has one. Called, amazingly enough, "Predator."

It's the CIA's unmanned, armed recon/interdiction drone. :eek:
 
I have to ask this question; maybe there's a legal type out there who can answer this.

Why were the local police involved at all? Illegitimate curreny would be a Federal issue no? I.e. no local laws would have been broken?

From this URL

http://www.treas.gov/education/faq/currency/legal-tender.shtml

It's clear the a business can develop a policy that could exclude certain types of currency for a reason. However, it is equally clear that absent a BestBuy policy on refusal of a certain curreny the clerks comment that they (I) dont have to take this..."If I dont want to" is wrong.

The URL for BestBuy's legal policies (bestbuy.com) bottom of the page doesnt mention anything like this so perhaps we should all visit, or e.mail, you local BestBuy and ask to see this policy?

Just thought I'd ask
 
Hockea,

Actually the Secret Service IS the correct branch to call for 'funny money'. My wife was on first name basis with several of them when she worked in the cash department for the FRB here in Denver. And if BEST BUY refuses to take ANY US currency that's marked 'legal tender for all debts public and private', the guy COULD have legally walked... as he made a 'good faith' effort to pay in the currency of the day (ie two dollar bills).

I have contacted the Best Buy Corporate offices, who had NO IDEA of this occurring (at least according to Robert Feivor).

I have also contacted the Baltimore County PD and requested to speak with Bill Toohey, Media relations for BCPD.

I ALWAYS try to check my sources BEFORE writing a story for publication.

As a free lance journalist, my take on this (and the article I will write on this) is as follows:

The BCPD were only doing their job as they saw it.

The Best Buy cashier was only doing their job as they saw it.

THE SCARY PART is the REAL problem here is all the stupid young people who have NO CLUE as to the real world.

That goes particularly for any form of CUSTOMER SERVICE. And these are the people that will be 'taking care of' all us BOOMERS in our old age. That scares me the MOST.
 
why would those who will have a chip implanted for automatic scanning and transaction account deduction need to know anything about "money"?
 
I will accept donations of all the 2 dollar bills you want to get rid of as they are apparently no good. Please PM me fo shipping instructions. :D
 
I won't even buy gumballs at Best Buy anymore. I've been scah-REWED there one too many times. Actually, check out ihatebestbuy.com Good to know I'm not alone. You can even buy t-shirts. :D
I had a stereo installed in my truck there. When I was leaving the parking lot, I noticed that an airbag light was on, which had never, ever been on before. Turned around and told the kid about it. "We didn't do that," he said. I asked to see the manager. The manager backed the kid up and wouldn't do ANYthing about it. This was a 1-year-old car with no problems whatsoever. Scah-REWED. Cost me $85 to have it checked out and shut off. The mechanic said that a stereo installation job could easily have caused that light to go on. I paid it and sent a bill to Best Buy for it....go figure, I never heard back. :barf:
 
A couple of years ago I had a run in with Best Buy over the same thing (no fee for installation of stereo).

When I went back, they wanted to charge a fee. I told them that they said no charge, that the sign said no charge, and I wasn't going to be charged. The head manager came out and said that that special had ended a week ago and they just hadn't taken down the signs, briefed their staff.

Told the guy, tough nuggies and if he thought I was out of line, call the cops but I was taking my car without paying them.

The cops were called, and thankfully, unlike the ones above, told the manager that if he thought I was in the wrong, to take me to court but they couldn't keep my car.

I got a summons to small claims and went. I ended up with a free stereo, speakers, and cross connects AND the court processing fee. They ended up not so happy :D. (Judge concluded that since I was told verbally of no fee and that the sale signs were still within customer view, that they had to honor the sale).

The fact that I got everything free was because the manager of the store and some higher up told the judge that they could do whatever they wished, as was store policy, and that the courts (and me) had to abide by THEIR procedures. Didn't impress the Judge :D.

Wayne
 
Job competence

We are told that:

"The BCPD were only doing their job as they saw it.

The Best Buy cashier was only doing their [sic] job as they [sic] saw it."

What nonsense - on both counts.

1. The BCPD ought to know legal tender when any of its officers sees it. Arrests require probable cause of a crime. WHAT was the crime here?

2. The cashier - ANY cashier - ought to know legal tender he/she sees it. This twit didn't.

She could have called the manager. Instead, she arraogantly declared an inane policy and called the cops, who were just as stupid as she was.


What is truly amusing about this thread is the number of those calling (correctly) for legal action against the idiots in question. No doubt, many of them are the same people railing against "bottom-feeding scum lawyers" for bringing other actions seeking redress. :rolleyes:
 
It is reasonable to have a misunderstanding about currency, especially with smeared ink.

It is possible that, having such a misunderstanding, the police would be called because counterfeighting is a crime.


What is not understandable is why a suspected counterfeighter of $2 bills would be treated as a violent criminal once his name and address were established. That was where this got out of hand.

The police reaction to this possible crime was overboard. They should have action taken. Bestbuy ought to apologize for their involvement, but they didn't put this guy in a cell.


Why were the local police involved at all? Illegitimate curreny would be a Federal issue no? I.e. no local laws would have been broken?
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Would you also expect local police to ignore a kidnapping, since that is also a Federal crime?
 
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