TN Man Arrested After Spending Old $50 Bill

Can one sue for stupidity? Seriously though, I probably would have attempted to make the clerk or store owner pay for legal fees if any and for lost time. I had an incident like this occur in PHX a few years back. The clerk who was clearly old enough, wouldn't take my 1969 20.00 bill. ( Which I got from the bank by the way ) This is what happens when people rely on technology too much. On another note, I once got a counterfeit 10 in change when I worked at a club years ago. I told the gal it was fake and she told me to just keep it. I ended up turning it into the local bank.

 

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Why do so many people rely on those pens? Do they not know that a good note can be shown as counterfeit and a phony note can be shown as real with those pens. Those pens are not infallible.

 

how can you be arrested for something that you can do without any ill intent or knowledge? I'm not saying that their isn't a law in place that says you can arrest for such a thing, but that doesn't mean its right or just.

 

Ignorance is never a valid defense.

 

50 years old would be a 1960s issue.

 

If it were me, I'd happily say yes and then ask the person asking me, "Do you want to hear the story behind me getting arrested?" Probably a really good conversational topic, hence we are all here talking about it, I bet coming from the mouth of the person behind the story is even better.

Most jobs don't ask if you've been arrested, but rather ask if you've been convicted and that's what most background checks actually check to see.

 

Wrong! Employers will do a background check. An arrest WILL show up on a background check. Most employers equate an arrest with a conviction. They also equate an arrest with guilt. You got an arrest on your record? We don't care about the circumstances, you aren't working here!

 

I was arrested once, but no conviction. The job I have now is a high profile job. All they cared about was if I was convicted or not. Since I wasn't, I got the job. And yes, arrests DO show up.

 

Baloney, because that's against federal law. I knew plenty of people who got SECRET clearance level at my previous employer who had old felonies on their records. They don't hire you when you check off the "No" box when you should check off the "Yes" on the conviction and put what you did in the field to explain. They don't hire dishonest people. I've also worked with several people who had been arrested but never convicted, background checks came back clean. If they do opt to dig deeper into their record, all they'll find is "Arrested but never convicted". Most courts and or police departments don't keep records of the details in such cases.

 

Arrests can show up if they do that sort of check. Most only check to see whether or not you have been convicted of a crime.

 

To my knowledge, arrested but never convicted only comes up during full fingerprint checks if I remember correctly, which employers do not have done. They usually do this during police investigations because it's costly.

Edit: And from what I found online, the only other time they check for arrests along convictions is security (SECRET, TOP SECRET, etc) jobs within the government, high profile security related jobs in private sector and or police jobs.

 

Here is the list of what's included on a normal employer background check:

• Driving records
• Vehicle registration
• Credit records
• Criminal records
• Social Security no.
• Education records
• Court records
• Workers' compensation
• Bankruptcy
• Character references
• Neighbor interviews
• Medical records
• Property ownership
• Military records
• State licensing records
• Drug test records
• Past employers
• Personal references
• Incarceration records
• Sex offender lists

When you are arrested but not convicted, that means you were not found guilty or charges dropped which leads to no actual criminal record. You can't say a person is a criminal unless they were found guilty. This is why normal background checks do not show arrests, they will only find convictions for the criminal record portion of the check.

So, this guy in the story, if he ever needs a job, he has nothing to worry about. He can check "No" on the application where it asks if he's ever been "Convicted" of a crime.

 

That would apply to me. I do disaster inspections for FEMA and must undergo an FBI background check every so often (as does everyone else who is a FEMA disaster inspector). And we do not get Secret, Top Secret or any other kind of clearance other than permission to do the work for FEMA and get an ID card from FEMA.

 

Yup, when I had to get my SECRET clearance which is actually still currently valid and active, they had two questions:

1. Have you ever been arrested?
2. Have you ever been convicted of a crime (felony, misdemeanor)?

Every other non-security related job has only asked if I've been convicted, not arrested.

 

You can't be serious, what you are suggesting means that everyone needs to check every single bill they use including one dollar bills (its still illegal) to make sure they are not counterfeit. Again just because its a law doesn't mean that its right.

The USA is so screwed up its beyond belief, we have more people in prisons per capita then countries like Russia and China. Ever wonder why that it is? It's because of stupid laws that can get you arrested and even jail time when no one is hurt for your supposed crime......

 

I check all of my notes when I get them. It's not all that hard to do.

 

Ignorance of the law is not an excuse, but ignorance that you were in violation of the law is. (In some circumstances)

No US court is going to convict a person for trying to spend one piece of counterfeit currency when that person claims they didn't know it was counterfeit. The Secret Service will confiscate it for evidence and whoever they took it from loses it without any compensation. If their investigation finds other counterfeit bills in circulation and the trail of where they came from leads back to the person denying guilt, and his fingerprints are on most of them, and this information conflicts with the sworn statement he gave as to how he came across the first counterfeit bill, that's when he's in deep dookie.

 

Did it say somewhere that it was a 50 year old bill? All I see is that it is a 50 Dollar bill.

 

You are right, I guess I cannot wrap my mind around someone using a really old bill at face value, though I do have a 2 dollar 1928 red seal that I might spend at face . It is really beat and had been put in a lamination.

 

I would be thrilled to find a red seal in circulation, regardless of condition.