Jack In The Box Catches Miss Puerto Rico's Counterfeit $20 Bill Operation

Thursday Miss Puerto Rico was on a fast food run for her co-workers. First stop was at Taco Bueno. Miss Puerto Rico called me as she waited in the drive-thru to tell me she was looking at more police cars than she ever remembered seeing.

This turned out to be part of a police chase gone very bad.

Little did Miss Puerto Rico know, at the time, that she was about to have herself a major run-in with the law.

Miss PR's next fast food stop was at the Jack in the Box at I-820 and John T. White/Bridge Street Road.

Jack took Miss PR's order through his Box. Miss PR pulled up to the pay for your food window. Handed the Jack in the Box moneytaker a $20 bill, with the moneytaker, who I believe was the manager, hollering, "Stop cooking that order, she gave me a fake $20 bill."

Miss Puerto Rico was very embarrassed. The Jack in the Box workers were quite rude.

So, Miss PR showed up back at work with only the Taco Bueno food.

This happened on a Thursday. Friday morning Miss PR was barely at work when a detective showed up to grill her about her counterfeiting operation. Sometimes American ways can unsettle Miss PR. This would be one of those times. Luckily a co-worker interceded, somewhat.

Eventually, after a lot of questioning, the detective decided to let Miss Puerto Rico remain free. For now.

So, I find this entire scenario very troubling. I accept the fact that there has always been counterfeiting. And it's a bad thing. However, the U.S. government estimates that less than 1/100 of 1 percent of U.S. paper currency is counterfeit.

Miss Puerto Rico acquired her bogus $20 bill at her bank's ATM.

It was only the first use of that bogus $20 bill, when spent by the counterfeiter, that a crime took place.

After that, the bogus $20 was in circulation, just like any other $20 bill, you know, the ones printed by the government.

Jack in the Box could have given Miss Puerto Rico her Jumbo Jacks and then sent the bogus $20 bill out with another customer, or deposited it in the bank. No harm done. Or am I missing something?

It seems like a HUGE waste of resources to go after someone like Miss PR to investigate her for counterfeiting. I mean, how likely is it that a counterfeiter is going to use a fake bill to buy some fast food, with the counterfeiter knowing, likely better than most, that the bill is going to be checked?

Which leads to another question. You can't spend a $20 bill these days, in most places, without the felt pen type test being done to it. So, to safely spend a bogus $20 bill, you'd need to use it at a self-pay type place or flea markets and garage sales. This seems like an awful lot of bother to go through for some petty transactions.

The counterfeiters must have some means of getting the bogus bills into circulation, with the counterfeiters making money on it somehow.

It's very perplexing. I really think Jack in the Box owes Miss Puerto Rico an apology and a couple free Jumbo Jacks. She was a victim. Not a criminal.

Now, if you are worried that you may have a wallet full of bogus $20 bill, something called WikiHow has a webpage with an awful lot of steps you can go through to check the validity of your money.

Seems easier to me to just use a debit card.