Three Flandreau businesses have reported being given counterfeit $100 bills as payment but didn’t accept the money in exchange for merchandise.
Police Chief Zach Weber said the businesses hit with the fake money confiscated three of the bills and reported all of the incidents to his department. “They took the bills, but they did not exchange it for goods,” he said. That’s the right way to handle the situation, he said.
Clerks at Subway, Maynard’s Grocery Store and Trading Post all were given counterfeit bills between Dec. 8 and Jan. 16, he said. The Trading Post was hit two different times.

Clerks at his businesses are diligent about not accepting counterfeit bills for payment, said Pat Powers, owner of Powers Oil Co. and the Trading Post and Dakota Stop convenience stores. “If you cash them, they (authorities) come and confiscate them, and you never get the money back.”
There’s no pattern as to who received the bills, but Weber said he knows a couple of the suspects’ identities. No arrests have yet been made.
“They were using it to break it down into smaller bills,” he said.
Some of the fake money appeared to have Asian writing on the back and the front.
“Secret Service is the agency that handles anything with money,” Weber said. In some cases, the agency also has local law enforcement work on the case, he added.