posted
Someone linked me to this story which was posted on another forum:
quote: PUT YOURSELF in Mike Bolesta's place. On the morning of Feb. 20, he buys a new radio-CD player for his 17-year-old son Christopher's car. He pays the $114 installation charge with 57 crisp new $2 bills, which, when last observed, were still considered legitimate currency in the United States proper. The $2 bills are Bolesta's idea of payment, and his little comic protest, too.
For this, Bolesta, Baltimore County resident, innocent citizen, owner of Capital City Student Tours, finds himself under arrest.
Finds himself, in front of a store full of customers at the Best Buy on York Road in Lutherville, locked into handcuffs and leg irons.
Finds himself transported to the Baltimore County lockup in Cockeysville, where he's handcuffed to a pole for three hours while the U.S. Secret Service is called into the case.
Have a nice day, Mike.
"Humiliating," the 57-year old Bolesta was saying now. "I am 6 feet 5 inches tall, and I felt like 8 inches high. To be handcuffed, to have all those people looking on, to be cuffed to a pole -- and to know you haven't done anything wrong. And me, with a brother, Joe, who spent 33 years on the city police force. It was humiliating."
What we have here, besides humiliation, is a sense of caution resulting in screw-ups all around.
"When I bought the stereo player," Bolesta explains, "the technician said it'd fit perfectly into my son's dashboard. But it didn't. So they called back and said they had another model that would fit perfectly, and it was cheaper. We got a $67 refund, which was fine. As long as it fit, that's all.
"So we go back and pay for it, and they tell us to go around front with our receipt and pick up the difference in the cost. I ask about installation charges. They said, 'No installation charge, because of the mix-up. Our mistake, no charge.' Swell.
"But then, the next day, I get a call at home. They're telling me, 'If you don't come in and pay the installation fee, we're calling the police.' Jeez, where did we go from them admitting a mistake to suddenly calling the police? So I say, 'Fine, I'll be in tomorrow.' But, overnight, I'm starting to steam a little. It's not the money -- it's the threat. So I thought, I'll count out a few $2 bills."
He has lots and lots of them.
With his Capital City Student Tours, he arranges class trips for school kids around the country traveling to large East Coast cities, including Baltimore. He's been doing this for the last 18 years. He makes all the arrangements: hotels, meals, entertainment. And it's part of his schtick that, when Bolesta hands out meal money to students, he does it in $2 bills, which he picks up from his regular bank, Sun Trust.
"The kids don't see that many $2 bills, so they think this is the greatest thing in the world," Bolesta says. "They don't want to spend 'em. They want to save 'em. I've been doing this since I started the company. So I'm thinking, 'I'll stage my little comic protest. I'll pay the $114 with $2 bills.'"
At Best Buy, they may have perceived the protest -- but did not sense the comic aspect of 57 $2 bills.
"I'm just here to pay the bill," Bolesta says he told a cashier. "She looked at the $2 bills and told me, 'I don't have to take these if I don't want to.' I said, 'If you don't, I'm leaving. I've tried to pay my bill twice. You don't want these bills, you can sue me.' So she took the money. Like she's doing me a favor."
He remembers the cashier marking each bill with a pen. Then other store personnel began to gather, a few of them asking, "Are these real?"
"Of course they are," Bolesta said. "They're legal tender."
A Best Buy manager refused comment last week. But, according to a Baltimore County police arrest report, suspicions were roused when an employee noticed some smearing of ink. So the cops were called in. One officer noticed the bills ran in sequential order.
"I told them, 'I'm a tour operator. I've got thousands of these bills. I get them from my bank. You got a problem, call the bank,'" Bolesta says. "I'm sitting there in a chair. The store's full of people watching this. All of a sudden, he's standing me up and handcuffing me behind my back, telling me, 'We have to do this until we get it straightened out.'
"Meanwhile, everybody's looking at me. I've lived here 18 years. I'm hoping my kids don't walk in and see this. And I'm saying, 'I can't believe you're doing this. I'm paying with legal American money.'"
Bolesta was then taken to the county police lockup in Cockeysville, where he sat handcuffed to a pole and in leg irons while the Secret Service was called in.
"At this point," he says, "I'm a mass murderer."
Finally, Secret Service agent Leigh Turner arrived, examined the bills and said they were legitimate, adding, according to the police report, "Sometimes ink on money can smear."
This will be important news to all concerned.
For Baltimore County police, said spokesman Bill Toohey, "It's a sign that we're all a little nervous in the post-9/11 world."
The other day, one of Bolesta's sons needed a few bucks. Bolesta pulled out his wallet and "whipped out a couple of $2 bills. But my son turned away. He said he doesn't want 'em any more."
My dad always put a $2 bill in each of our stockings at Christmas. I think they're awesome. Stupid people.
Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
Did these people really not know that $2 bills were legal tender even if they're not used much?
Posts: 4625 | Registered: Jul 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
The Treasury Department has been considering issuing a new redesigned two dollar bill for years, and still might in the next couple years. We might start seeing it a bit more often.
I collect them too, and so does most of my family. My mom even has a bunch of old silver certificate ones, and some weird ones that have red stamps on them instead of green. She used to work at a bank, but I guess they are pretty rare/valuable.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
On the way home from BobnDana Con, I stopped at an Iowa rest area, but had no change for the pop machine. But it had a bill changer. So I stuck in a five dollar bill -- and guess what I got? Five of those gold dollar coins that you hardly ever see anymore.
The vending machine took them fine. But I had to explain what they were to the toll-taker on the Kansas Turnpike.
posted
*starts planning to pay for everything in $2 bills, Kennedy half dollars, and Eisenhower dollars*
You can get all of them a-plenty from banks, at least the first two. Eisenhower dollars are a bit rarer, iirc.
Posts: 15770 | Registered: Dec 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
Eisenhower dollars are rare, but you can get the Susan B. Anthony and Sacajawea dollars from banks.
Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
| IP: Logged |
quote:"She looked at the $2 bills and told me, 'I don't have to take these if I don't want to.' I said, 'If you don't, I'm leaving. I've tried to pay my bill twice. You don't want these bills, you can sue me.' So she took the money. Like she's doing me a favor."
quote:THIS NOTE IS LEGAL TENDER FOR ALL DEBTS, PUBLIC AND PRIVATE
You CANNOT refuse to accept cash minted by the US Treasury for a debt. My understanding is that, if you do, that debt is considered null. I have had this verified a couple of times.
Usually the point is moot because you don't deal with most of your creditors face to face, and you are not supposed to send cash through the mail. (And if you did send a creditor cash, you would not really have any documentation to prove that you did.)
This is also a non-issue for services, because you often pay before service is rendered, and therefore the person does not have to accept cash--they can simply refuse to perform the service.
But in this case, assuming he could get documentation of their refusal to accept legal tender, he could have left and paid nothing.
Posts: 289 | Registered: Apr 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
I am totally tempted to get some $2 bills and go out with some folks at DallasCon trying to spend them.
Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
Last summer I bought some stamps at the Post Office vending machine to avoid a long line and received change in $1 coins. I was a little bit apprehensive about trying to spend them, but no one even hesitated to take them or even looked at them twice. They must be more prevalent that I knew, but since I don't work in any kind of money handling that's not really a surprise.
Posts: 2069 | Registered: May 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
Yeah, I've never had a problem with $1 coins. I've gotten double-takes, and one or two funny looks, but never an arguement.
Posts: 1357 | Registered: Mar 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
I only keep one $2 bill, I can't seem to find any more of those anymore. I like to collect coins too, I found a 1943 dime buried in the ground of my buss stop the other day. After the billions of gallons of rain we got it surfaced and a lucky person got it. It's got one huge torch, instead of our modern-day three, on the back; and the face of mercury(the mythological god), instead of that "President-whose-name-I've-no-idea-what-it-is". I might scan it to show it to you all.
Posts: 3389 | Registered: Apr 2004
| IP: Logged |
Roosevelt's dying is the reason they stopped making the mercury dime. So, do you have the S, D or P mint?
Posts: 9871 | Registered: Aug 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
I don't know, I hadn't actually taken a good look at it. I've also got a gold modern dime, I haven't checked the year though. I don't even know if its real or just dipped in gold. I think it might be brass though.
Posts: 3389 | Registered: Apr 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
I got paid for babysitting once in one dollar coins because they had gone to a casino for the night. I had to repeat that story everywhere I used those suckers
Posts: 3636 | Registered: Oct 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
How much is a moderately weathered 1908 penny worth? A penny?
And I've still got a few nice crisp $2 bills left from when we switched to the toonie. Once, I was working and a guy came in to buy a couple packs of smokes with a handful of beautiful mint $2 bills. I accepted the change, pulled out $10 of my own, and traded the till.
And yes, coins are so much easier in vending machines.
Posts: 2849 | Registered: Feb 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
That would be wicked funny if it weren't for the fact that the poor guy got in so much trouble with the police.
I have a $2 bill that I got as change in a gas station a few years ago. I was really surprised to get it, and thought the guy was messing with me, but he showed me a whole section of the cash register full of them. I still haven't spent it, just because I think its so cool, but maybe now I'll have to think of a place to spend it where I can really freak someone out...
The vending machines at my school give back Susan B. Anthony and Sacajawea dollars if your change is more than a dollar... Its actually kind of annoying, because I have more space in my wallet for paper money than for huge coins, but they are cool.
Posts: 3420 | Registered: Jun 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
I think I'd have started having fun with them when they threatened to call the police if I didn't come in to pay them.
Posts: 26071 | Registered: Oct 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
Actually ran into my first $2bill in years'n'years when the cashier kept examining one as he handed back my change today. Naturally, I got it off him.
Posts: 8501 | Registered: Jul 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
I used to collect coins a lot, but never really had the money to get any of the really nicer pieces that cost more.
The best thing I have is probably an old Morgan Head silver dollar, and a walking liberty silver dollar.
A 1908 penny would be worth more than a penny, is that a wheat penny? I can't remember which years are wheat penny's. Or what years are iron pennys.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
What does the 1908 penny look like? I wonder, because the Lincoln penny wasn't introduced till 1909.
Posts: 9871 | Registered: Aug 2001
| IP: Logged |
1943. And it's steel, not iron. Wheat pennies were printed until 1959. I used to collect pennies. I have a really pretty 1943-D. I also had some good Indian Heads, but I lost them when I moved. I am still in pain over this, because it was really cool to own something with a date in the 1800s.