Man arrested at Best Buy for paying in $2 bills

A man trying to pay a fee using $2 bills was arrested, handcuffed and taken to jail after clerks at a Best Buy store questioned the currency’s legitimacy and called police.
According to an account in the Baltimore Sun, 57-year-old Mike Bolesta was shocked to find himself taken to the Baltimore County lockup in Cockeysville, Md., where he was handcuffed to a pole for three hours while the U.S. Secret Service was called to weigh in on the case. Bolesta told the Sun: “I am 6 feet 5 inches tall, and I felt like 8 inches high. To be handcuffed, to have all those people looking on, to be cuffed to a pole – and to know you haven’t done anything wrong. And me, with a brother, Joe, who spent 33 years on the city police force. It was humiliating.”

After Best Buy personnel reportedly told Bolesta he would not be charged for the installation of a stereo in his son’s car, he received a call from the store saying it was in fact charging him the fee. As a means of protest, Bolesta decided to pay the $114 bill using 57 crisp, new $2 bills. As the owner of Capital City Student Tours, the Baltimore resident has a hearty supply of the uncommon currency. He often gives the bills to students who take his tours for meal money. “The kids don’t see that many $2 bills, so they think this is the greatest thing in the world,” Bolesta says. “They don’t want to spend ‘em. They want to save ‘em. I’ve been doing this since I started the company. So I’m thinking, ‘I’ll stage my little comic protest. I’ll pay the $114 with $2 bills.’”

Bolesta explained what happened when he presented the bills to the cashier at Best Buy Feb. 20.

“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.”

Bolesta says the cashier marked each bill with a pen. Other store employees began to gather, a few of them asking, “Are these real?”

“Of course they are,” Bolesta said. “They’re legal tender.”

link www.wnd.com...

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Just another example of our future 'leaders'.. ignorant people.. how do you work somewhere where you deal with money every day and NOT know $2 bills are legal tender?? I knew this when I was like, 8.

Oh

Commenting on the incident, Baltimore County police spokesman Bill Toohey told the Sun: “It’s a sign that we’re all a little nervous in the post-9/11 world.”

Hats off to the Mensa graduate employees for making to world safe for people of limited perception.

Maybe he should have paid in boxes of pennies. See if those dumb asses at Best Buy ask if the coin is real.

reply to post by ReadyPower


Just another example of the failed educational system within the US.



The thing that grates my nerves is that this service rep will probably end up being a store manager at some point.

A little nervous he says?? Thats all this is a sign of? No, they aren't a little nervous. They are A LOT tripping on power and their ability to exercise it, even when there is a much easier solution for all involved. How pathetic for all involved....and ignorance of $2 bills is unforgivable. Heck, I've got a bunch and the ones which came at the same times are sequential. So? millions of people have them......but he gets his day ruined and humiliated like some punk...because Best Buy can't manage to train their people to even a basic level and the Police are power tripping to beat hell.


Did the cop even THINK of calling the bank?? If this guy was telling the truth (Which, obviously he WAS) that number of $2 from the same bank would surely be unique enough for just about everyone there to have heard about in general office talk.

A Phone Call? or Arrest a citizen that may VERY well have done nothing wrong? Well.. Whats the question? Arrest of course! I hope he sues their tails off. Both of them.

The dumbassery seems to be growing more prominent by the day I swear.

I have a few $2 bills stashed away of my own....maybe I should go visit Best Buy and see what happens? My daughter has been saving them as well so I guess we need bodyguards to accompany us whenever she decides to spend them.

:shk: Unreal.

Wow, just, wow! I knew people were getting stupider and stupider what with the proliferation of "reality shows" but that takes the cake. I once asked a Taco Bell cashier if they accepted Hawaiian money and was told they only accept US dollars. Sad really.

Ahh I'm sure the alert came about because there's no $2.00 button for said clerk to push on the cash register so of course, it can't be legal. Never mind the complications of figuring out the change......

Originally posted by ReadyPower

Commenting on the incident, Baltimore County police spokesman Bill Toohey told the Sun: “It’s a sign that we’re all a little nervous in the post-9/11 world.”

It's a sign of stupidity on the part of the cashier and the police for taking hours to sort that out. Nice gratuitous 9/11 reference he threw in there.

America, we're number one....in ignorance. Just another example of why America is quickly becoming a not so funny laughing stock to the rest of the world. No worries, in a generation this attitude will APPROPRIATELY evolve into our historical friends shunning us until we are openly called even by European governments a rogue state riddled with incompetent government and ignorant people, all with a massive war machine making us the MOST serious threat to the rest of humanity.

Keep voting for the Right people and you WILL see this come true.

Until I see a formal apology from Best Buy, consider them added to my growing list of companies to boycott. This [snip] is inexcusable. Where was the store manager? Was he also to dumb to recognize a $2 bill? Did they not have a [snip] computer in the store to Google a $2 bill?

Disgusted.

Wow go back in time when these first came out I was in the military offshore of some Middle East dirt hole and the Military cashed our checks paying us in $2 bills. Large stacks of crisp new $2 bills. I thought it was cool not criminal.

Now shouldn`t the cashier be charged for defacing those bills? I`d say for being stupid but that isn`t a crime. And this guy should go sue crazy on all involved now.

I have a $2 bill, which I got when my grandfather died. Before that, I've had a few and spent a few.

This is ludacris! Of course it's legal tender, although it's a Federal Reserve Note. It's what we use. How lame is this story? Thanks for sharing, OP. But, it hurts my paradigm a little, and yes the education system is defunct.

reply to post by ReadyPower


Wow, how ignorant can best buy employees get? Even though $2 bills aren't commonly used in the US, since when was it illegal to pay with legal tender? Who dropped the ball, the police or Best Buy? IMO, BOTH!

Everytime I go overseas, I usually go to the bank and exchange for those $2 bills to give out, people love 'em!

never mind the store clerks you find moron clerks all the time

but who was the moron cop who arrested the guy that did not know $2 were legal tender.

If this was what they have for LEOs there god help them.

This is a really old story and it was covered here before when the story came out in 2005.

ATS Thread:Man arrested after spending $2 bills


I like to use $2 bills and dollar coins when paying tips

My last experience with Best Buy: My brothers and my friend and I went there as teenagers, and we started looking at CDs ... well, I guess they thought we were going to steal because literally the ENTIRE time there employees kept coming up to us asking the same question "if we needed help".. we say no, then they left.. then like a minute later, another employee would come up, asking the same thing. Repeat this over and over. Like for an hour employees came up to us asking the same thing over and over. Never shopping there again.

Op, you forgot to copy and paste the part were they noticed smeared ink on the bills. This is a non-story.

Holy crap...you can't pay with 2 dollar bills...everyone knows that, because someone just might need to do some mental math.... The police should have shot him...