{"id":16215,"date":"2025-10-07T00:34:24","date_gmt":"2025-10-07T00:34:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/movie-money-circulates-in-cortez-again\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:55:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T03:55:14","slug":"movie-money-circulates-in-cortez-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/movie-money-circulates-in-cortez-again\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Movie money\u2019 circulates in Cortez again"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Durango
Durango Police Department officer Victoria Stancampiano holds counterfeit money Wednesday that had been circulated around Durango. The police department says thousands of dollars worth of counterfeit bills are making the rounds. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Counterfeit bills resembling movie props have resurfaced in Cortez.<\/p>\n

The most recent occurred Thursday<\/a> when an employee at Handy Mart South on South Broadway in Cortez told police an older customer attempted to pay for a scratch-off lottery ticket with a $100 bill marked \u201cFor Motion Picture Purposes.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to a Cortez Police Department report, the Handy Mart South clerk refused to accept the bill. The customer then withdrew legitimate cash from the store\u2019s ATM to complete the purchase. The clerk stated the business did not lose money during the transaction.<\/p>\n

The officer\u2019s report said the store\u2019s owner uses a surveillance system and plans to review video footage of the incident. Police listed the case as inactive because the person in the video has not been identified.<\/p>\n

\"A
A counterfeit $100 note bears the words \u201cfor motion picture purposes\u201d where the words the United States of America would normally be in the top center-right of the Benjamin Franklin bill. (Courtesy of Cortez Police Department)<\/span>Jerry McBride<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Thursday\u2019s report follows a wave of similar incidents in recent years. The department has recorded multiple cases since July 2023, often involving counterfeit $5, $10 and $50 bills, as well as the occasional $100 bill. These scams commonly target Cortez businesses and fast-food chains. Some of the bills also say \u201cCopy Money\u201d or \u201cFor Motion Picture Uses.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2023, the department flagged an influx of counterfeit $5 bills, many bearing the identical serial number PK42691282A, which turned up Four Corners Community bank slip deposits from the Fiesta Theater, Slavens Hardware and the Cork and Bottle liquor store<\/a>. Other attempts involved fake $5 and $10 bills labeled \u201cCopy Money\u201d and \u201cFor Motion Picture Purposes\u201d at McDonald\u2019s, Burger King and Four Corners Community Bank.<\/p>\n

No arrests have been made in Thursday\u2019s incident.<\/p>\n

Police urged businesses and shoppers to examine the texture and quality of bills carefully and report suspected counterfeits. Counterfeit money may feel strange or have odd markings. Other indicators include missing holograms and security threads, police said.<\/p>\n

\"No
No arrests made in Thursday\u2019s report of counterfeit cash that says use \u201cfor motion picture purposes.\u201d Several reportings of fake bills in Cortez involving local establishments have circulated since July 2023. (Cortez Police Department Facebook)<\/span>Jerry McBride<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

counterfeit case reported Thursday using fake Benjamin Franklin <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16216,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[168,28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-16215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-crime","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16215"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16215\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21172,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16215\/revisions\/21172"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16215"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=16215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}