Subway supervisor warns County businesses about counterfeit bills

5 years ago

CARIBOU, Maine — Subway staff in Caribou were surprised to learn that one of the bills sent to the bank for their regular deposit was counterfeit. The bank notified the restaurant on Wednesday morning, and Area Supervisor Colette Pelletier, who oversees all Aroostook Subway restaurants, said she was able to trace the counterfeit $50 to a purchase made at 1:58 p.m. Tuesday.

Pelletier said bank officials told her they’d received other counterfeit $50 bills and some $100s. The $50 bills found in circulation apparently contain the same serial number: LGQ03229158 and both denominations have  a faded or worn out area underneath the left-hand side of the number. Counterfeit pens also will reveal whether or not the bills in this group are legitimate, she said..

Pelletier plans to review the security footage from the Caribou Subway and obtain an image of the individual who used a $50 bill to buy a meatball sub and milk for $9.83, at which point she will present her findings to the local police. She also added that the restaurant is responsible for money lost due to the counterfeit bill.

Store Manager Guy Lewis said he’s worked at the Caribou Subway for three years, and that he’s never encountered counterfeit money.

“I’ve worked a lot of other customer service jobs in town and it has never once happened at any of those places either,” he said. “You hear about it all the time, but I’ve never actually worked at a place that was hit with it.”

Pelletier said at no point in her decade of work with Aroostook Subway restaurants has a counterfeit bill passed through one of the registers.

“We were kind of stunned,” she said. “This is the first time I’ve had to deal with it. We’re always on alert when it happens to other places, but this is the first time we actually got one ourselves.”

Pelletier has since made photocopies of the counterfeit bill to warn various businesses and organizations throughout The County and let people know what to look for.

Lewis added that, “unfortunately, it’s that time of the year when this sort of thing happens.”