Newport Police Don't Buy Woman's Phony $100 Bill Story

NEWPORT, RI—Newport police charged a 20-year-old Newport woman with passing counterfeit bills on Saturday after she allegedly used a fake $100 bill to buy a pack of Newport 100s and cigars.

Police said Thalia Rivera, of 90 Girard Ave., might have gotten away with the crime if it weren’t for an alert store clerk who noticed the fake bill and recognized her as a former neighbor at the Chapel Terrace Housing Complex.

According to a police report, Rivera went into the Shell gas station at 136 JT Connell Highway at 4:45 a.m. and passed the bill to the clerk, receiving $87.84 in change.

The clerk didn’t think anything of it at first because he was familiar with her and “did not believe that she would try and scam him or the store,” police said.

But about an hour later, the clerk was counting his cash drawer when he saw that the $100 bill was emblazoned with “for motion picture use only” across the top and back of the bill.

Police said the clerk showed police Rivera’s Facebook page and said that before police arrived, he messaged her to ask if she’d come back to make restitution for the stolen items.

She responded with a story that she had picked up a hitchhiking stranger who offered to pay her $20 for a ride to the Shell and to buy a two-pack of “Game” cigars.

Rivera eventually returned to the Shell at the urgings of the clerk where she eventually was arrested.

She told police at the scene a similar story — that she had picked up a woman who flagged her down and offered cash to buy the cigars and give her a ride. Rivera claimed that the female was white, was under 18 and wearing Ugg boots, but was unable to provide much more detail.

But Rivera said that the woman she claimed to have picked up didn’t go into the store with her, which the clerk said was not true; Rivera came into the store with another woman who used the restroom and left in a hurried fashion, police said. She also was unable to immediately make restitution, so police decided to go ahead with the arrest.

According to the police report, Rivera at one point said that if the clerk messed up, it shouldn’t be her fault, saying “it’s not my fault he can’t do his job!”

Later, at police headquarters, police said $100, consisting of four $20s, a $10 and two $5s, was found in her underwear, though Rivera claimed she didn’t know it was there.