Marco Island man realizes bills fake at gas station

A hard lesson learned when it comes to money, a man in Collier County tried to buy a lottery ticket on Thursday at a Marco Island gas station and realized he was paying with  fake bills.

“I think it’s a lesson to everyone,” Jacquielynn Wolff said.

The police report said, the man believed he could have accidentally picked up the fake bills used to buy lottery tickets when getting change from a restaurant earlier in the day.

“I’m surprised to hear that someone is going around with fake $20 bills,” Rita Mondello said.”

“I thought it would be more like $100 bills.”

Mondello said she’s received a fake bill before and realized it when she went to the bank to deposit it.

“I couldn’t even tell they knew when they looked at it,” Mondello said. “And they had one of the other tellers look at it, and then the teller was like, “Oh no, this isn’t good.”

Marco Island police said to take a few extra seconds to look at money you get. In this case, the fake bills said, “prop money” on it. Police said the texture will also be different.

“That’s really a shame,” Wolff said. “I was born and raised here, and so now this is very sad to hear this is happening.”

The restaurant the man believes he received the fake bills from reimbursed him for the money he lost.

Police said, most of the time, people who end up with fake bills are out of luck, so double check.