Use a $2 Bill, Go To Jail.

[Pab Sungenis]

(another good example of why Best Buy sucks.) Requires registration, but bugmenot has a working password.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-md.olesker08mar08,1,76004.column?coll=bal-local-columnists&ctrack=1&cset=true

PUT YOURSELF in Mike Bolesta's place. On the morning of Feb. 20, he buys a new radio-CD player for his 17-year-old son Christopher's car. He pays the $114 installation charge with 57 crisp new $2 bills, which, when last observed, were still considered legitimate currency in the United States proper. The $2 bills are Bolesta's idea of payment, and his little comic protest, too.

For this, Bolesta, Baltimore County resident, innocent citizen, owner of Capital City Student Tours, finds himself under arrest.

Finds himself, in front of a store full of customers at the Best Buy on York Road in Lutherville, locked into handcuffs and leg irons.

Finds himself transported to the Baltimore County lockup in Cockeysville, where he's handcuffed to a pole for three hours while the U.S. Secret Service is called into the case.

Have a nice day, Mike.

But the REAL kicker, for me, is this quote down at the bottom of the article.

For Baltimore County police, said spokesman Bill Toohey, "It's a sign that we're all a little nervous in the post-9/11 world."

...IF YOU DON'T SHOP AT BEST BUY, THEN THE TERRORISTS WIN! :puke:

[whistle]

1. I think that was a publicity stunt to draw attention to Best Buy.....

....or maybe even the Federal Reserve to the possibility of moving away from low denomination paper currency.

What consumer walks around with the exact number of $2.00 bills in their pocket to make a $114 purchase at a retail store? Also, two dollar bills are issued all the time (last printing was in 2002), but most people when they get one just horde them as a souvenir or put them away thinking they'll become a collectible. They are very common in Nevada.

What we need to consider in this country, like Canada did a few years back is eliminate the small currency paper notes and use coins for $1, $2 and even $5 values.

[Pab Sungenis]

3. Actually....

...there was another run of $2 bills in 2004.

If you read the article, the guy ran a student tour company, and gave the kids their spending money stipends in $2 bills. That's why he had so many on hand.

[Bronco69]

4. He said in the story that he gets lots of them from his bank

to give to students. They think it's cool because a lot of them have never seen a $2 bill. Since he had so many when he went to Best Buy to pay his bill he decided to pay with $2 bills.

[whistle]

5. So, the publicity stunt played in his favor for his student tour...

...service.

[htuttle]

7. It worked -- my attention has been drawn to Best Buy

And I intend to attend to NEVER EVER spending a thin dime in that godforsaken place.

Any retail establishment whose cashiers aren't familiar with the local currency isn't worth the glue that sticks the price tags to the boxes. If their cashiers are that stupid, can you imagine how stupid their repair department is? No thanks.

[Bronco69]

2. I wonder if he can sue for false arrest. I would certainly find out!

[truth2power]

6. The question not asked...

"It's a sign that we're all a little nervous in the post-9/11 world."

WTF does that mean?? I have absolutely NO idea how paying for an item in legal tender is somehow connected to terrorism.

A total non-sequiter. Someone please explain this????

[mindfulNJ]

8. WTF?

My kids get $2 bills from their grandparents every year on their birthday...a tradition in my husband's family for a couple of generations now. I never knew it was a terrorist related activity. Good God.:wtf:

[RedCloud]

9. Making people think is terrorism.

Notice that one of the first targets Bush's wife went after to justify how two airplanes knocked down four towers that 9/11 was to assault university faculty.

therefore making the mindless minimum wage population think that a $2 bill exists... Why it's almost treason!

[unhappycamper]

10. I stopped at my bank today (in Boston) & they did not have any

$2 bills.

[mindfulNJ]

11. you have to order them in most cases...

My in-laws do it all the time.

[Calliope]

12. Can Anybody Say

LAWSUIT!!!!!

[KakistocracyHater]

13. Cashiers have a felt pen to detect counterfeit paper money

It would be 1 color if the bills are genuine & a different color if it was counterfeit. Almost every store has these, so they HAD to have known the $2 bills were real. Sounds fishy to me...& I'm SO weary of hearing 9/11 as the excuse for every heavy-handed, hysterical, authoritarian response.