Lunch Money? No Problem

By Matt Wood in News on Dec 15, 2005 3:58PM

Back in fourth grade, Chicagoist tried to get away with a lot at school, but it was things like chewing gum in class or playing tackle football on the playground when the teachers weren't looking. Three fourth graders in Gary set their sights a little higher, printing up almost $300 worth of fake bills on their home computer. Chicagoist had a computer back then too, an big Texas Instruments typewriter-thing that you connected to a TV, but we couldn't get past the novelty of typing four-letter words on the screen. We were so apathetic. Put these kids in an AP class.

One of the boys tried to pass off a fake twenty for lunch. The cafeteria worker thought it was odd that the 10-year old was flashing around a gangster roll, plus the paper's weight and texture didn't feel quite right, so she confiscated it. The boy admitted to printing up the fake bills at home, and said he got another boy and girl in his class to help him. The ringleader is being held in juvenile custody, while his two accomplices were released to their parents.

Police found more fake cash at the boy's home, and said it wasn't a bad effort for a kid. But all of the serial numbers were the same, the paper wasn't quite right, and apparently someone failed their scissors lesson because many of the bills weren't cut very well.

The Secret Service said he was the youngest counterfeiter they'd seen. The boy's parents say they knew about the funny money, but claimed he was only allowed to play with it around the house, because 10-year olds are responsible like that.