Just Your Everyday $1 Million Bill Forgery Case

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one-million-dollar-bill.jpgThis made my day:

Man with $1M bill busted at bank

AIKEN, S.C. – A bank teller had a million reasons to deny this transaction.

Police say a man tried to open an account with a $1 million bill, which does not exist. The teller refused and called police while the man started to curse at bank workers, said Aiken County Sheriff’s spokesman Lt. Michael Frank.

Alexander D. Smith, 31, of Augusta, Ga., was charged with disorderly conduct and two counts of forgery, Frank said.

The second forgery charge came after investigators learned Smith bought several cartons of cigarettes from a nearby grocery store with a stolen check, Frank said.

If you had created a fake $1 million bill, who do you think would be most likely to notice the forgery? A bank, right? Wouldn’t it be smarter to head to 7/11 and try to purchase 600,000 slurpees?

Also, as the photo above shows (that’s the actually bill, by the way), the teller actually tried to use the forgery pen that determines if a bill is real or not. So a random dude walks in with a crumpled million dollar bill, and the teller actually tests to see if it’s real? That teller really believes in the good in people. I wish I had that much faith in humanity.

(H/T Wonkette)

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We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

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