Haines’ local bank manager wasn’t laughing last week when a teller discovered someone had deposited funny money into the night drop box.
Haines Borough Police Chief Robert Griffiths said the counterfeit $100 bill was turned into the bank’s night deposit box either Thursday night or early Friday morning. It was discovered the next day, but only after the deposit had already been processed, Griffiths said.
“We didn’t find it until later on during the day when the teller was going through her money and cleaning it – yes, we clean money,” said First National Bank Alaska branch manager Kyle Gray. “By that time it was already mixed in, so we don’t really know where it came from.”
Gray said when you work with large amounts of bills every day, it’s easy to recognize a counterfeit. “I spotted it from across the counter,” he said. “As soon as they put it down, I was like, ‘That’s fake.’”
The $100 was darker than the rest of the bills, and when it was held up to the light, Gray couldn’t spot the watermark of Benjamin Franklin’s face on the right side of the bill.
The night deposit box requires a key and is mainly used by businesses, Gray said.
Counterfeit money is unusual in Haines, but pretty common elsewhere, Gray said. When he worked in Eagle River, the bank dealt with counterfeit money once or twice a week, Gray said.
Counterfeit checks are much more common, both in Haines and elsewhere, he said.
A person or business who suspects they have received a counterfeit bill should notify police immediately so the person passing the bill can be questioned, Griffiths said.