Starkville police allegedly have questioned a Mississippi State football player after an incident Tuesday night in which he was accused of using several counterfeit $100 bills at Remington’s Hunt Club. “It’s my understanding that he has not been charged with anything,” Mike Nemeth, associate athletic director, said. “From what I can gather, he has been questioned.
“I do understand that there’s a question of the passing of counterfeit bills and that some of our football athletes were in attendance at that place on that night.”
It is The Reflector’s policy not to publish names of people until charges are filed.
Interim President Charles Lee said Larry Templeton, the athletic director, called him Thursday afternoon to inform him of the situation. Lee was in meetings all day Thursday with the Board of Trustees of the Institutionss of Higher Learning.
Hunt Club owner Bill Norris said he was suspicious about money a young man used Tuesday because he had heard reports of counterfeit money in the city.
Norris said the young man was accompanied by at least three or four others he thought were football players, and trying to keep them inside the establishment was difficult.
“When I asked him not to leave he panicked and tried to run out of the building,” Norris said. “It was kind of chaotic-it was really hard to keep them still.”
Norris said the young man claimed he got the bills from his stepfather and that he did not know they were counterfeit.
Norris talked to MSU football coach Jackie Sherrill Wednesday morning about the incident. Norris said Sherrill assured him that he would not have any more problems with the football team and that he was going to let the Secret Service take care of it.
The U.S. Secret Service and local police departments investigate counterfeiting.
Mickey Nelson, the resident agent in charge of the Mississippi field office of the Secret Service, said he is sending agents to Starkville to investigate several counterfeiting incidents in the area.
“We are coming up there to interview several people,” Nelson said.
Nemeth said that if charges are brought against the player, the athletic department would wait for the legal system to run its course.
“He’d have bigger problems than with the team,” Nemeth said.
Nemeth also said it was his inclination to believe that charges would not be brought against the young man and that he will not be arrested.
Norris emphasized that he had no idea whether the player knew the bills were counterfeit. “In no form or fashion do I want to make it seem that he’s guilty, because that won’t be known until the investigation is over,” Norris said. “My hopes are that he didn’t know they were counterfeit.”
When Norris initially saw the bill, he thought it was authentic because it had a security thread embedded in the bill. “I saw the strip-I thought, ‘It’s real, it’s gotta be,'” Norris said.
When Norris looked closer, he saw that the strip said “FIVE,” and the watermark on the bill was of Lincoln, who appears on $5 bills.
“It was very hard to tell it was counterfeit in a low-light condition,” Norris said.
Norris said he wanted to inform other merchants about the nature of the bills he received. He said he thought the bills were $5 bills that had somehow been bleached and reprinted as $100 bills.
“I almost missed it myself, and I thought I was being pretty careful,” Norris said.
The U.S. Secret Service offers several areas to check in order to detect counterfeit bills. These include:
*The portrait-The genuine portrait appears lifelike and stands out distinctly from the background. The counterfeit portrait is usually lifeless and flat. Details merge into the background, which is often too dark or mottled.
*Federal reserve and treasury seals-On a genuine bill, the saw-tooth points of the Federal Reserve and Treasury seals are clear, distinct and sharp. The counterfeit seals may have uneven, blunt or broken saw-tooth points.
*The border-The fine lines in the border of a genuine bill are clear and unbroken. On the counterfeit, the lines in the outer margin and scrollwork may be blurred and indistinct.
*Serial numbers-Genuine serial numbers have a distinctive style and are evenly spaced. The serial numbers are printed in the same ink color as the treasury seal. On a counterfeit, the serial numbers may differ in color or shade of ink from the Treasury seal or may not be uniformly spaced or aligned.
*The paper-Genuine currency paper has tiny red and blue fibers embedded throughout. Often counterfeiters try to simulate these fibers by printing tiny red and blue lines on their paper. Close inspection reveals that on the counterfeit note the lines are printed on the surface, not embedded in the paper.
More information on counterfeit money can be found on the Secret Service Web site at http://www.ustreas.gov/usss/counterfeit.shtml.