A well-counterfeited bill takes into consideration certain features; the scrollwork, for example, or spacing. You’ll also want to get the paper right, because nothing tips people off to counterfeit money like the wrong paper. In Sheboygan, Wisconsin, it was indeed the feel of the paper that made gas station cashier Teresa Wells suspicious when a woman put down $20 to pay for chips and smokes. Upon closer inspection, there was another problem: the bill had print only on one side.

Leah Jarolimek told Wells she hadn’t noticed anything suspicious about the bill before she lay it blank-side down on the counter, and a man who had been waiting in the car for her quickly came in to explain that the whole thing had been a joke. Or perhaps an accident. When Jarolimek went back to the car to get some real money, Wells copied down her info from the driver’s licence offered as proof of age for the cigarettes.

Staring down three years and $10K if convicted, Jarolimek says she got the forgery extraordinaire from the brother of a sorta boyfriend. He says he got it from his mother.

» Scott Saxon