LAKEPORT – Lakeport businesses were urged on Monday to keep an eye out for counterfeit bills similar to one recently passed at a business in the city.

Both Lakeport Police and the Lake County Chamber of Commerce issued warnings about counterfeit $100 bills being circulated in Lakeport.

Lt. Brad Rasmussen of the Lakeport Police Department said a counterfeit $100 bill was passed at a local grocery store on May 6.

“They determined that the watermark showed that it was a $5 bill made to look like a $100,” Rasmussen said.

The investigation determined that the person who passed the bill had gotten it when they cashed a check at a local bank, where the bill may have been deposited in a night drop, he explained.

No one was taken into custody and so far it appears to have been an isolated event, Rasmussen said.

“Occasionally we get these kinds of bills circulating around town,” Rasmussen said, adding that he's not seen a rash of them in light of the economy.

If someone is going to pass counterfeit bills, they'll do it no matter what, he said.

Anyone who is presented with one such a counterfeit bill is urged to call the Lakeport Police Department at 707-263-5491.

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