Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, April 9, 1990 TAG: 9004090397
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B2 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: VICTORIA RATCLIFF SALEM BUREAU
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The first incident occurred at the SuperX drugstore at Spartan Square in Salem on April 2, according to Salem Police Lt. Russ Gwaltney. A man approached a cashier about 5:54 p.m. and asked for a pen to sign a greeting card and then asked if the cashier would give him large bills for a stack of small bills that he said totaled $150.
The cashier gave the man a $50-bill and five $20-bills, which the man appeared to place in the card and then seal in an envelope, Gwaltney said. The cashier counted the money the man had given him and found it to be $2 short.
The man told the cashier he would go to his car and get the additional $2. The man then took his original stack of money and left the sealed envelope with the cashier. When the man never returned, the cashier opened the envelope and found it did not contain money, Gwaltney said.
A similar incident occurred at the Harris Teeter grocery store on West Main Street in Salem Friday at 5:58 p.m., Gwaltney said.
In that case, the man entered the store, asked for large bills equaling $120, but only gave the cashier $118. The man appeared to seal six $20-bills in an envelope and left it with the cashier. He then took his money to his car so he could add $2 to it, Gwaltney said. When the man never returned, the cashier opened the envelope and found a greeting card but no money inside.
Just over an hour later, at 7:10 p.m., a similar incident occurred in Lexington. Police Chief Bruce Beard said a man, woman and two children approached a cashier at a Country Cookin restaurant and asked for $200 in $20-bills in exchange for a stack of smaller bills.
As the cashier counted the smaller bills, the man appeared to place the $20 bills in a greeting card and sealed the envelope, Beard said. The cashier counted only $198, and gave the money back to the man. The man said he'd go to his car and get the additional $2, and left the sealed envelope with the cashier.
When the man didn't return, the cashier opened the envelope and found a greeting card with several pages of a TV Guide magazine in place of the currency, Beard said.
From various descriptions given police, the man appears to be in his middle to late 30s, between 5 feet 10 and 6 feet 1, thin, with brown hair and a beard, and wearing jeans.
by CNB