Counterfeit arrest: 18-year-old charged in fake money scam in Hickory area

CONOVER, N.C.,None — One of the teens accused of creating much of the counterfeit money that’s been circulating through Catawba County has been arrested following a joint operation between the Newton and Conover police departments.

Devin Andrew Yancey, 18, of Conover was charged with felony possession of five or more counterfeit instruments and uttering a forged instrument.

Yancey is the first suspect to be arrested in the biggest flood of counterfeit cash to hit the greater Hickory area in recent years.

More than three dozen fake bills have been passed in Hickory this year. Newton has had five cases so far and seven fake bills showed up in Alexander County in January.

“In all, we’ve had 25 at last count,” said Sgt. Jon Little of the Conover Police Department. “We know that some of the cases are related because some of Hickory’s serial numbers have shown up in Conover. I think there are still some additional counterfeiters out there.”

While clearly not the work of criminal masterminds, the bills do look convincing from a distance and have fooled a number of area clerks.

The bills found in Conover aren’t good enough to fool the pens designed to detect counterfeit money. They appear to have been made by an entry-level printer and they’re printed on white paper that’s crumpled up to make it appear aged.

One of Yancey’s associates inadvertently led investigators to the source of the fake cash when they attempted to pass a counterfeit bill at Conover’s McDonald’s.

The drive-through clerk spotted the fake money and stalled the customer. Before the officers arrived, the customer drove away, but the clerk got the vehicle description and tag number. Conover officers found the car nearby and questioned the customer, Little said.

“I believe they did know it was counterfeit at the time,” he said.

The interviews resulted in Conover taking out a felony warrant against Yancey for uttering a forged instrument.

A separate incident led Newton police to Yancey.

A Newton resident reported that someone had stolen and forged signatures on at least two checks then cashed the checks.

Yancey was named as a suspect. Officers brought him in to the Newton Police Department to interview him. When officers searched his backpack, they found several fake $20 bills and arrested him on charges of possession of counterfeit instruments. They also served Conover’s outstanding warrant, according to the police report.

“There were other people who were involved, but they were juveniles, so that’s information I can’t release,” said Capt. Kevin Yarborough of the Newton Police Department. “This investigation is not completely closed.”

Conover detectives contacted Investigator Robert Burwell of the Hickory Police Department on Friday after they arrested Yancey.

“We think at least two groups are doing this based on the materials used to make the money,” Burwell said. But he declined to divulge the methods and supplies used to make the fake cash.

He noted that because of advances in printers, scanners and paper, counterfeiting money is not as tough to do as it once was.

Little said some of the people who have passed the counterfeit money may not have known the bills were fake. Others almost certainly did.

“I think every single one of the bills passed at fast food restaurants was passed at the drive through,” Little said.

Suspects used similar techniques in Hickory’s fast food restaurants. If the clerk appeared suspicious, the suspect would drive away, said Sgt. Brett Porter of the Hickory Police Department.

Officers will meet with the District Attorney’s Office to determine whether to bring criminal charges against people suspected of knowingly passing counterfeit money.

Hickory and Conover officers encourage anyone who thinks they may have gotten stuck with a fake bill to give them a call. Officers will check the money, ask where it came from and help determine if it’s real. They’d rather do that than followup after a crime has been committed.

“If you knowingly pass one of these, you’ve just committed a felony,” Little said.

WSOC