Traffic Stop Leads To Counterfeit Bills
MANCHESTER — Police said they arrested a man with the unlikely name of Fred Jingles on Tuesday after finding his pants overflowing with counterfeit $20 bills.
Jingles, 23, who was listed as homeless in a police report, and a companion from Tacoma, Wash., Daquan Grimes, 25, both face charges that include first-degree forgery.
Officers were sent to the Dunkin' Donuts at 318 Adams St. at 7:55 p.m. on a fraud complaint. The caller said a man in a Kia Forte with Washington state license plates was in the drive-thru trying to pay for an order with counterfeit money, a police report says.
By the time police arrived, the car was gone, but Officer Jason Wagner wrote in a report that he figured the driver had gotten onto I-84. Wagner spotted the car westbound on the highway and followed it off Exit 58 in East Hartford to Silver Lane, where the driver pulled over at a Sunoco station.
After pulling up nose to nose with the Kia, Wagner wrote that the suspects looked like they might try to flee, so he drew his weapon and he and another officer ordered the two occupants to show their hands, the report says. East Hartford police arrived to help, and while the two were being detained outside the car, numerous bills that turned out to be counterfeit $20s spilled from Jingles' pants, police said.
In all, police seized 79 bogus bills that had been stuffed in his pants and in the Kia's driver's side door pocket, Wagner wrote. Police contacted the Secret Service in New Haven, and agents were expected to travel to Manchester to question the men, the report says.
Jingles said he did not know about the counterfeit money until police pulled them over and Grimes told him to hold the bills, the report said. Grimes said he had sold a pound of marijuana in New York for $2,000, and the man who bought the pot must have paid with phony cash, the report said.
The men were being held on $100,000 bail each pending court appearances set for Nov. 27.