wacki
04-10-2005, 01:31 PM
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-md.olesker08mar08,1,76004.column?coll=bal-local-columnists&ctrack=4&cset=true
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http://www.bugmenot.com/
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Mike Bolesta of Baltimore, MD, knew that paying his $114 installation charge to Best Buy in only $2 bills would cause a small stir, but he didn't think it would cause him to be arrested.
Humiliating," the 57-year old Bolesta was saying now. "I am 6 feet 5 inches tall, and I felt like 8 inches high. To be handcuffed, to have all those people looking on, to be cuffed to a pole -- and to know you haven't done anything wrong. And me, with a brother, Joe, who spent 33 years on the city police force. It was humiliating."
After buying a stereo, finding that it would not work, having a new stereo model installed, and being told that he did not have to pay an installation fee, Bolesta was contacted by the store, and was threated with police action if he did not pay the fee he was told before did not exist. As a sign of protest, Bolesta decided to pay using only $2 bills, which he has an abundance of because he asks his bank for them specifically.
Unfortunately for him, the cashier did not seem to understand that the $2 bill is indeed legal US tender, since the bill itself is not often used. After rudely refusing to take the money, the cashier accepted the bills, only to mark them as though they were conterfeit. Supposedly, the suspicion of counterfeit was due to a smearing of the ink on the bill, but Secret Service agent Leigh Turner stated to the police that the bills were indeed legitimate, adding that "Sometimes ink on money can smear."
Perhaps the most galling aspect of this story is not the fact that it happened, or even the treatment that Mr. Bolesta endured, but the rationale used to explain the incident away, as stated by Baltimore County police spokesman Bill Toohey: "It's a sign that we're all a little nervous in the post-9/11 world." The "post-9/11 world" hardly excuses shackling a citizen to a pole or placing him in leg irons merely on one person's ignorant suspicions. In fact, there is nothing that should ever excuse this kind of treatment.
At the very least, Bolesta's son now wishes to distance himself from $2 bills from now on. Apparently, he doesn't want to be labeled a counterfeiter, either.
Use this to read original
http://www.bugmenot.com/
(article requires registration; use login bselig@dodgeit.com/bselig - thanks, bugmenot)
Mike Bolesta of Baltimore, MD, knew that paying his $114 installation charge to Best Buy in only $2 bills would cause a small stir, but he didn't think it would cause him to be arrested.
Humiliating," the 57-year old Bolesta was saying now. "I am 6 feet 5 inches tall, and I felt like 8 inches high. To be handcuffed, to have all those people looking on, to be cuffed to a pole -- and to know you haven't done anything wrong. And me, with a brother, Joe, who spent 33 years on the city police force. It was humiliating."
After buying a stereo, finding that it would not work, having a new stereo model installed, and being told that he did not have to pay an installation fee, Bolesta was contacted by the store, and was threated with police action if he did not pay the fee he was told before did not exist. As a sign of protest, Bolesta decided to pay using only $2 bills, which he has an abundance of because he asks his bank for them specifically.
Unfortunately for him, the cashier did not seem to understand that the $2 bill is indeed legal US tender, since the bill itself is not often used. After rudely refusing to take the money, the cashier accepted the bills, only to mark them as though they were conterfeit. Supposedly, the suspicion of counterfeit was due to a smearing of the ink on the bill, but Secret Service agent Leigh Turner stated to the police that the bills were indeed legitimate, adding that "Sometimes ink on money can smear."
Perhaps the most galling aspect of this story is not the fact that it happened, or even the treatment that Mr. Bolesta endured, but the rationale used to explain the incident away, as stated by Baltimore County police spokesman Bill Toohey: "It's a sign that we're all a little nervous in the post-9/11 world." The "post-9/11 world" hardly excuses shackling a citizen to a pole or placing him in leg irons merely on one person's ignorant suspicions. In fact, there is nothing that should ever excuse this kind of treatment.
At the very least, Bolesta's son now wishes to distance himself from $2 bills from now on. Apparently, he doesn't want to be labeled a counterfeiter, either.