LIMA — Modern technology is great.
Except when it isn’t.
The Allen County Treasurer’s Office learned that particular truism the hard way this week.
Two counterfeit $50 bills received by the Treasurer’s Office slipped through the cracks, so to speak, on Monday when a currency detection machine in the office failed to do its job.
So, at least for the short term, Treasurer Rachael Gilroy is going old school. She’s breaking out the familiar — if outdated — pen method of detecting counterfeit bills.
A report filed with the Allen County Sheriff’s Office said the fake $50 bills were received in the Treasurer’s Office on Monday from an unknown person who was paying his or her taxes. Gilroy said that may or may not exactly be the case.
“All funds collected by all various county agencies are run through this office, so the [counterfeit] bills could have come from any one of a number of sources,” Gilroy said. “We had multiple pay-ins, so it’s impossible to narrow down where this money came from.”
But the fact remains that a piece of equipment designed specifically to detect counterfeit money — one that cost the county some $7,000 to purchase and $1,000 annually to maintain and update with current software — did not work properly.
“We’ve taken additional steps to ensure this does not happen again,” Gilroy said Tuesday. “We’re having our [detection machine] unit serviced, and we went back to using the old-fashioned pens for a while. I’ve given the[counterfeit detection] pens to all of our departments.”
The treasurer said the fake currency received earlier this week was not detected until it was taken to a local bank for deposit.
“Of the hundreds of millions of dollars we collect, it’s unfortunate that two [counterfeit] bills slipped through,” Gilroy said.
She said the information has been forwarded to the U.S. Secret Service, routine procedure in all counterfeit cases.
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