Man dupes multiple cashiers with bogus $100 bills in Gwinnett County

GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. (FOX 5 Atlanta) - Business owners beware: Police said a man duped multiple clerks in Gwinnett County with bogus $100 bills, getting away with several hundred dollars in change in just one afternoon.

Raffaele Lucci, owner of Italian Pizza Pie in Gwinnett County, shared surveillance video of the man dressed in bright red with patterned socks and sandals. You can watch him order a pizza and then pay. The cashier studies the bill closely, even asking the manager for a second opinion, according to Lucci. Eventually, the cashier gives the suspect more than $80 in change.

"The goal of this type of criminal is basically to get real money back," Sgt. Jake Smith with Gwinnett County Police described. "So they'll take a fake 100, they'll buy some low dollar item and they'll get 80 or 90 dollars back."

According to police reports, the suspect used counterfeit cash in Metro PCS, Walmart and Boost Mobile the same afternoon as well (all four stores are in the same shopping center near Lawrenceville).

Police said as we move into more of a cashless society, younger clerks are less familiar with the built-in security features of larger bills, which makes stores more vulnerable to criminal activity like this. Police encourage clerks to review tips online to learn how to spot counterfeit cash.

"We were very upset because not even two hours into the day, and we already lost 80 dollars," Lucci said.

Fortunately, the entire transaction was caught on a security camera installed just moments before the crook came in.

"I hope he gets caught because it's not fair to go around and pass this money like this where people work hard to make money," Lucci said.

Smith said it's difficult to say whether the suspect is local or from out of town, but what is almost definite, Smith added, is that he will continue to use the counterfeit cash until caught.