Counterfeit Cash Circulating in Westport

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A warning for business owners in Kansas City’s Westport area:  be on the look out for counterfeit, cash carrying crooks.

A manager at Tea Drops, located on Pennsylvania Avenue, said on the night of October 13 a man and a woman came inside the tea shop — both of them bought a $2 or $4 drink with a 100 dollar bill.

The purchases immediately made employees leery.

“The people that took the money that night felt it was suspicious that two different people, who were together, came in with a 100 dollar bill and they (the employees)  even felt that something was wrong, but they took it anyway, ” said Halliday Bertram, manager.

Bertram said she soon learned that just down the street on the same day, Port-Fonda Bar and Grill was also hit by a counterfeiter, who doled out a phony 100 dollar bill.

Managers at Port-Fonda’s declined to talk to FOX 4.

The Westport Regional Business League emailed an alert to several business owners informing them about the recent crimes and also reminding them that one of the best ways to protect themselves from counterfeiters is to scan all large bills with a special marker “before” they accept them.

“The real ones are going to be yellow when you mark them and the fakes ones are going to turn brown when you shine the light on them,” said Betram. “Also, a bar will show up on all of the real bills.”

At Open Fire Gourmet Pizza, Manager Derrick Hubbard said when it comes to 100 dollar bills, their policy is to never accept them.

“It’s more manageable for us,” he said. “We don’t keep a lot of cash in our registers, so most of our business is done by credit card.”