Cops: N.J. man charged with using counterfeit money

NEWTOWN — A 32-year-old New Jersey man is facing forgery, larceny and other charges after police say he used counterfeit money to make purchases at several stores in town last week.

Alex Burnett-Deroche was taken into custody April 27, after police received calls from two businesses in town about a customer attempting to pay for low-price items with fake $100 bills.

With descriptions of the suspect and the vehicle in which he left, officers managed to locate both on Church Hill Road.

After spotting the unoccupied vehicle parked outside the AT&T store on Church Hill Road, police said they apprehended a man matching the suspect’s description walking out of the store.

Authorities said the man — later identified as Burnett-Deroche — provided a fraudulent New York identification card before being placed under arrest and correctly identified.

He was transported to Newtown police headquarters and charged with two counts of firstdegree forgery and two counts of criminal attempt to commit sixth-degree larceny, as well as sixth-degree larceny, criminal impersonation and interfering with an officer/resisting arrest.

Burnett-Deroche was arraigned at state Superior Court in Danbury the next day and remains in custody with a pretrial hearing scheduled for May 12.

In an attempt to collect the counterfeit money Burnett-Deroche allegedly distributed, Newtown police are asking anyone in possession of a $100 bill with a B46637239A serial number to bring the bills to the police station at 191 South Main St.