Alert employees at the Sephora store on the Third Street Promenade helped in the arrest of two women possessing $1,400 in counterfeit bills on Sept. 13.
At 6:40 p.m. officers of the Santa Monica Police Department received a radio call about a pair of women who had been at the store, located at 1244 Third Street Promenade, attempting to make purchases using counterfeit $50 bills.
The loss prevention agents at the store had witnessed one of these women attempt to use one of these bills to pay for some merchandise.
After these two women had left the store the loss prevention agent followed them to parking structure number four whereupon he began to speak with them.
The responding officers were in communication with the staff at the store who directed them to the location of the loss prevention agent, and therefore the suspects.
The officers questioned these women and after searching them they discovered a fake $50 bill on the first suspect.
The officers then asked the second suspect if they could search her car, and she obliged by responding in the affirmative.
The officers searched the vehicle and discovered a total of $1,400 in counterfeit $20 bills. The United States Secret Service is the agency responsible for counterfeit money so they were contacted by the Santa Monica Police Department and they said they would be following up on the case later. Both of these women, a 38-year-old from Los Angeles, and a 31-year-old of Lomita, were arrested.
The 38-year-old was charged with possession of counterfeit currency and giving false identification to a peace officer (no bail), while the other was charged with driving whilst unlicensed (bail $100).
Editor’s Note: These reports are part of a regular police coverage series entitled “Alert Police Blotter” (APB), which injects some minor editorial into certain police activities in Santa Monica. Not all of the Mirror’s coverage of incidents involving police are portrayed in this manner. More serious crimes and police-related activities are regularly reported without editorial in the pages of the Santa Monica Mirror and its website, smmirror.com.
