Trending
LIBERTY – Nearly $3,000 in suspected counterfeit currency was collected by Liberty police after a caller reported an exchange on an e-commerce site.
According to a police report, an officer spoke with a man, who said he agreed to meet an individual named “Nessa” on Facebook Marketplace, who agreed to buy an iPhone Duo from him for $2,800 and meet at the Liberty Plaza Walmart.
The man arrived at the Walmart’s south end parking lot and “Nessa” arrived in a smaller vehicle, giving him $2,700, not $2,800, and scanned the phone to ensure it was real before handing him the money.
The report states the person left the area before the man could verify it, adding that he did not see them leave. The man told officers that he believed only $100 of the cash to be real and the remaining $2,600 to be counterfeit, as the bills did not have watermarks or other security features that real U.S. currency has.
Officers could not find any vehicle matching the man’s description via their Flock system, and the man described “Nessa” as a large black man with dreads and a gray hoodie, who he believed to be from the Akron area because he sent a screenshot of him traveling on Interstate 80 near Meander Reservoir while he was on the way.
Officers told the man that it would be difficult to follow up on the case because of the unlikelihood of confirming “Nessa’s” identity, and he agreed to turn the suspected counterfeit currency in as evidence.
The officer noted plans to check with Walmart for any possible video of the transaction, adding it wouldn’t likely reveal identifying information because the lot’s location was an area 10 to 20 spaces from the store’s entrance.