Man Arrested, Cuffed After Using $2 Bills

Funny things happen when people try to spite others due to a temporary inconvenience. At Best Buy, a man attempting to pay a fee using $2 bills was arrested, handcuffed and taken to jail after clerks at a the store became suspicious of the currency's legality and called police.

According to World Net Daily, a story that appeared in the Baltimore Sun related the situation where 57-year-old Mike Bolesta was stunned when police took him to the Baltimore County lockup in Cockeysville, Md., and handcuffed him to a pole for three hours while they waited for the U.S. secret service to come in to examine the bills.

After being told by Best Buy personnel that he would have to pay an installation fee for the stereo in his son's car, Bolesta became temporarily inconvenienced and in an act of protest, used 57 crisp, new $2 bills to pay the full total of $114.

Bolesta recalls that day's events. "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."

Afterwards, she took the money and marked each bill with a pen. As this was happening, a crowd of employees began to gather, a few of them asking "Are these real?"

"Of course they are," Bolesta said. "They're legal tender."

According to the Sun report, the police arrest report noted one employee noticed some smearing of ink on the bills. That's when the cops were called. One officer reportedly noticed the bills ran in sequential order.

Bolesta recounts, "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.' 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.'"

Police took Bolesta to the lockup, where he sat handcuffed to a pole and in leg irons while the Secret Service was called in to examine the bills.

As he sat in the chair, he sarcastically remarked that "At this point, I'm a mass murderer."

Secret Service agent Leigh Turner eventually arrived and declared the bills legitimate currency, adding, according to the police report, "Sometimes ink on money can smear."

World Net Daily. "Man arrested, cuffed after using $2 bills." http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=43685