A purchase made on Facebook last November allegedly led to the passing of fake money and a felony charge filed Wednesday against a 20-year-old Beach Park, Ill. man.
Izaiah L. Smith faces a fine of $10,000 and six years in prison if he’s convicted of a felony forgery charge filed in Racine County Circuit Court.
According to the criminal complaint:
An officer with the Village of Mount Pleasant Police Department spoke to the victim, who stated he sold his Xbox to the defendant, who paid for it with fake money.
The victim stated the two met Nov. 2 at 12:30 a.m. Smith got out of a vehicle, handed money to the victim and immediately left. When the victim looked at the money, he observed it was two fake $100 bills that stated, “For Motion Picture Use Only,” along with four real $1 bills.
The man provided a description of the defendant, the license plate and a screenshot of Smith’s photo from Facebook to the police. The license plate came back to a different registered owner.
Information received from the Racine Police Department indicated a similar incident had happened two months earlier, and the defendant was the suspect in that case.
Smith, who made his initial appearance Wednesday, will be back in court Aug. 2 for an 8:30 a.m. preliminary hearing.
The area will see 22,000 jobs created over the next few years. So how will Racine County re-tool its skills?
Racine County Eye just received an investigative journalism grant and we’re focusing on barriers to employment for our Eye on Employment page. So we’re looking for people and business owners to tell us what they see are the biggest barriers to employment are in Racine County. Send yours to denise@racinecountyeye.com and put JOBS in the subject line.
Here’s more about the project:
