Man arrested for using $2 bills at Best Buy - clip from The Two Dollar Bill Documentary

A similar incident happened to Mike Bolesta at a Best Buy once, with more dire consequences. I was in jail! (laughs). Mike owns Capital City Student Tours, which takes class trips to historic cities on the East Coast. And when students get money for their lunch, I always give them $2 bills. The excess Mike often has came in handy when personnel from Best Buy went back on an agreement not to charge him for installing his son's car stereo. We got a call threatening us with the police if we didn't come in and pay the bill. So I thought a little bit, and thought okay, it's a little over $100. I think I'll pay in twos. I went to Best Buy, paid with the $2 bills. The girl marked them all with the pen, and went and talked to her manager. And the manager came over and said these aren't real. We've called the police. I said please, you're making a big mistake here! Young policeman walked in, handcuffed me behind my back and took me out. It turned out they called the Secret Service. Secret Service said they're real. So they tell me I can go. It was embarrassing. You know, if you're an American citizen and don't know we have $2 bills in our currency, you shouldn't be a cashier, because look what can happen.

Channel: The Two Dollar Bill Documentary

Views: 3,545,977

Rating: 4.8260436 out of 5

Keywords: police, consumer, arrest, secret service, money, funny, false arrest, true story, $2 bill, embarrassing, interview, currency, handcuffs, cashier, counterfeit, 2 dollar bill, cops, two dollar bill, cash, spending, rare money, police brutality, numismatics, baltimore, $2 dollar bill, misbehavior, Best Buy, call the police, strange but true, counterfeiting, documentary, incarcerated, put in jail, prison, broke the law, counterfeit pen

Id: iS3yjfefUD8

Length: 1min 39sec (99 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 03 2017

Reddit Comments

[u/robfrizzy]

If I’m a counterfeiter then why in the hell would I counterfeit something that is so rarely used and would draw suspicion?

[u/MewtwoStruckBack]

Step 1: Invest in $2 bills

Step 2: Use them at places likely to be dumb enough to think $2 bills are fake

Step 3: Allow yourself to be falsely arrested

Step 4: Sue the fuck out of everyone

Step 5: Repeat Steps 1 through 4

[u/Spudzley]

used to have a customer who did almost exclusively used two dollar bills (dont know why). one day we get a new assistant manager, when he came in to pay she yelled at him for trying to use "obviously fake money" and tried to throw him out and keep the evidence so that wed know not to accept them, thinking everyone took them and therefore were dumb. it took about ten minutes of convincing and showing her the wiki article about them for her to let him use the bills. after he left she tried to write me up for making her look bad and accepting fake bills... wtf? called the gm and he yelled at her over the phone. she ended up transferring after a few days of people giving her a ton of shit.

[u/kjhgsdflkjajdysgflab]

If you want to take this to another level, Wozniak has bought sheets of $2 bills and perforated the sheets to be easy ear off, and tears them off in front of cashiers to pay with them.

[u/LoneQuacker]

People really don't know about 2 dollar bills? I've been a cashier for over 5 years at different places and if anything when someone pays in a 2 dollar bill it's usually held on to for a while by management since it's pretty rare for people to do it. But come on I know retail doesn't always have the best and brightest but when a cashier, manager, and police officer all don't believe in them then there is a serious problem. Hell I used to get 2 dollar bills at the bank just for fun.

[u/Sonabaybeach]

Anyone there at Best Buy couldn't just whip out their phone and Google it?

[u/scungillipig]

Dollar coins seem to throw idiots off as well.

[u/roughneck0101]

Wait, what about the Cop who arrested him, surely he would have known we have 2 dollar bills, right? Best Buy would have gotten sued over that if it were me. ( I still collect 2 dollar bills by the way. )

[u/xiguy1]

I'm Canadian and used to go skiing in Vermont where most resorts and many others take Canadian money as a convenient way to pay for day visits, from across the border.

So, after skiing, my friend and I go to McDonalds to get a meal for the road. I started to pay with CAD dollars and the cashier stops me saying "no, we don't take Mexican money in here". I said "This is Canadian money and you have a sign up offering to take it ".

We ended up getting the manager who then asked the guy at the cash if he knew where Canada is. He said "no". It is/was about 40 miles north of where we were standing.