Nope, Target Cashiers Are Not That Dumb

NOVEMBER 16--Did you hear the story about the guy who went to a Target store in Massachusetts and repeatedly passed phony $100 bills with President Abraham Lincoln’s face--and not Benjamin Franklin's--on the money?

How dumb are those cashiers, right?

Well, actually, police records show that the alleged counterfeiting scheme was hardly as blatant as was originally reported.

Dana Leyland, 29, was arrested for passing the fake C-notes on three separate occasions over the past few weeks at a Target store in North Attleboro. Leyland, seen in the adjacent mug shot, made small purchases (socks and batteries) and left with the change, according to North Attleboro Police Department reports.

Contrary to published reports, however, Leyland did not hand over $100 bills bearing a likeness of the 16th president in place of a Founding Father.

On their face, the bills looked like legitimate $100 notes, complete with Franklin’s portrait. However, when investigators held the currency up to a light, they spotted a “‘USA FIVE’ security band on the left hand side and the Abraham Lincoln watermark on the right hand side.”

Police quickly concluded that the print from an actual $5 bill had “somehow been removed and the bill was reprinted as a $100.00.” The counterfeiter, however, could not remove the paper’s underlying watermark, which revealed the note’s true worth.

Leyland was arraigned Wednesday in District Court, where a judge ordered him held in lieu of $1000 bail. A Pawtucket, Rhode Island resident, Leyland--now facing three counts of passing counterfeit bills--has previously been arrested for assault, larceny, and resisting arrest. (3 pages)