“pissed is an understatement. i was so excited when i saw $20”
Garret Wayman, a waiter in a suburb of Wichita, Kansas, said he was excited on last year to see a $20 bill tucked under a ketchup bottle as a tip.
The tip opened up to be a religious pamphlet commending the waiter to seek “faith thru Jesus Christ” and start reading the bible.
“Don’t be fooled! There is something you can have more valuable than money,” reads the intro to the pamphlet. On the back is an eight-paragraph argument for why Wayman should buy a bible and become a Christian.
Frustrated, Wayman shared pictures of the fake tip on Twitter, where they have been retweeted over 2,000 times.
“18 USC §474(a). … Whoever, with intent to defraud, makes, executes, acquires, scans, captures, records, receives, transmits, reproduces, sells, or has in such person’s control, custody, or possession, an analog, digital, or electronic image of any obligation or other security of the United States; or
… Whoever prints, photographs, or in any other manner makes or executes any engraving, photograph, print, or impression in the likeness of any such obligation or other security, or any part thereof, or sells any such engraving, photograph, print, or impression, except to the United States, or brings into the United States, any such engraving, photograph, print, or impression, except by direction of some proper officer of the United States—
Is guilty of a class B felony.”
This is an old story (reported in 2015), but I would have turned this over to the Secret Service for criminal investigation because this pamphlet, when circulated in this manner, arguably constitutes passing counterfeit money. It’s designed to look like real money, was offered as payment for waitstaff services, and its intent and effect was to defraud the waiter of his earned tip. That should be enough to send the passer to jail. If the perp paid for the meal via credit card, it would have been easy for law enforcement to find him.
First of all it would have been helpful if Roger had included part (B) of the statute.
(b)For purposes of this section, the term “analog, digital, or electronic image” includes any analog, digital, or electronic method used for the making, execution, acquisition, scanning, capturing, recording, retrieval, transmission, or reproduction of any obligation or security, unless such use is authorized by the Secretary of the Treasury. The Secretary shall establish a system (pursuant to section 504) to ensure that the legitimate use of such electronic methods and retention of such reproductions by businesses, hobbyists, press and others shall not be unduly restricted.
Also a little extra fact checking one can find where the US government tells us about our currency. ON that web page there is the following:
Federal law permits color illustrations of U.S. currency only under the following conditions:
The illustration is of a size less than three-fourths or more than one and one-half, in linear dimension, of each part of the item illustrated;
The illustration is one-sided; and
All negatives, plates, positives, digitized storage medium, graphic files, magnetic medium, optical storage devices and any other thing used in the making of the illustration that contain an image of the illustration or any part thereof are destroyed and/or deleted or erased after their final use.
18 U.S.C. § 504(1), 31 CFR § 411.1.
Yes whoever left it is a dick. A dick who is not doing anything illegal, just exercising their first amendment rights. It appears the image complies to the following:
Federal law permits color illustrations of U.S. currency only under the following conditions:
The illustration is of a size less than three-fourths or more than one and one-half, in linear dimension, of each part of the item illustrated;
The illustration is one-sided; and
All negatives, plates, positives, digitized storage medium, graphic files, magnetic medium, optical storage devices and any other thing used in the making of the illustration that contain an image of the illustration or any part thereof are destroyed and/or deleted or erased after their final use.
18 U.S.C. § 504(1), 31 CFR § 411.1.
Anyone calling the Secret Service on this would probably get professional service and the file would go into the circular file, as the Secret Service does have real counterfeiters to deal with.
I’m curious how you measured that facsimile in determining it complies with the size requirements.
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The folks can take a proper ruler and measure a real $20 dollar bill (or they can look up the measurements on the US currency site) and then measure the bill. Also the article suggests the bill is only printed on one side which would mean the Evangelists are within the law. They do have first amendment rights still? If they use those rights in a way that makes them look like dicks still means it is speech protected by the First Amendment. Even more so than if they had left the server a real $20 bill which I suppose one can argue is a form of speech.
Also just for fun, you can film money. Just do not burn actual US cash, or foreign cash, postage stamps ect. in your film.
https://www.moviemaker.com/archives/moviemaking/producing/cinema-law-can-i-film-u-s-currency/
“Also the article suggests the bill is only printed on one side which would mean the Evangelists are within the law.”
Wrong, that’s only one of the legal requirements; reproductions of U.S. currency must also comply with the size requirement.
“They do have first amendment rights still?”
Passing fake currency is neither speech nor protected by the first amendment.
You are simply wrong on this issue. I doubt very much the server has bothered to contact the Secret Service or that you yourself have. May I suggest now that the government is actually back in business (the treasury department was one of the agencies without funding when this came out). Since you won’t contact the experts I will. I’m not expecting a response or that the Secret Service will respond on the blog, but I’m sure I will get a polite response that does not really answer the question.
There is an underlying issue in the story that you missed RR. The original story came out in 2015 and in the original story Mr. Weyman makes an issue about being paid $3 dollars an hour. Kansas minimum wage is $7.25. Employers in Kansas may use tips as part of a servers income, but must make up the difference so the employee is making $7.25 an hour. In this case it’s Mr. Weyman’s employer who should be upset. Or the employer is engaging in fraud and not paying Mr. Weyman minimum wage. Maybe Mr Weyman did a poor job and the Christian thought leaving just the flyer appropriate. Cruel Christians perhaps, but nothing illegal by the tipster.
And per Roger Rabbits last post he tries to make hay with the bills measurements, while overlooking the fact that the bill meets the US requirements. It’s not possible to determine the precise width of the bill, but it’s no where near 6.1 inches in length, only half the bills back is printed well under the statutes requirements. Originally this type of printing was a clever advertising ploy from decades ago. Print these out and place them on windshields or drop them on the sidewalk or place them on the door, or leave them (usually with a real tip) on a table at a restaurant, or even Burger King.
Notice how the cat has RR fingers as the article was propagated by r. Weyland’s manager whose salary, and any bonuses is tied to the businesses bottom line. And getting these Christians to actually leave tips so the restaurant can claim them as part of the $7.25 minimum wage the business is required to pay under Kansas and US Federal law.