Lake Mary's small business community is reeling from a rash of counterfeit currency incidents, with culprits using fake $50 bills to carry out a series of scams across the area. Jeff Busick, the owner of SoBol, an acai and smoothie shop, is among the affected, expressing his dismay in a WFTV interview, "It's upsetting. I get up every day to run my business and go home to my family and there are people out there doing this to us." Surveillance footage at his shop caught one suspect on December 16, who paid with a counterfeit $50 bill and left without waiting for his order.
These scams aren't just isolated incidents; other local businesses, such as Bronx House Pizza, Ice Spot, and Kava Culture, were also targeted by these schemes. In these schemes, suspects made small purchases with bogus bills, then swiftly left with legitimate change. This tactic hits the merchants hard, causing them to incur losses upwards of $100 per incident. Jeffrey Busick elaborated on the financial damage to his business in a WESH interview, revealing, "When you steal from us, it's coming out of my pocket, my family's food. I'm not a big corporation. I'm not Walmart." The scammers appeared to intentionally target teenage employees, capitalizing on their inexperience.
The Lake Mary Police Department has been actively pursuing leads on the suspects who were caught on camera during the acts. Enhanced security measures, such as counterfeit scanners, have been installed by some of the affected businesses since Bronx House Pizza installed a scanner paid off when an attempt to use a counterfeit bill was thwarted, as the bill failed to pass the machine's verification.
