Woman Tries To Buy Car With Cash She Printed At Home

Suspect

A German woman attempted to buy a vehicle from a car dealership in the southwestern city of Kaiserslautern last Friday using counterfeit currency she printed off at home.

She carried a wad of €15,000 (about N6.7 million) to the dealership in Kaiserslauterna for the used 2013 Audi A3, only for her plan to backfire as she left the location in handcuffs and riding in the back of a police car.

Exposing the woman’s plan did not require keen investigative skills, after she opted to print the bogus 50 (about N20,250) and 100 (about N40,500)-euro notes via a regular ink jet printer, according to German news outlet DW News.

When police searched the 20-year-old woman’s home in the nearby city of Pirmasens, 21 miles south of Kaiserslautern, they found the printer loaded with freshly printed “money” along with €13,000 (about N5.3 million) worth of mock euros.

Germany’s Federal Criminal Police (BKA) states that “imitating money with the intention of putting it on the market” is punishable by at least one year behind bars. However, the state prosecutor has yet to determine criminal charges against the woman.

The BKA said that although professional forgers use highly sophisticated technology to print currency, amateurs can easily access counterfeiting equipment online and require “no special knowledge”. They added that the 50-euro note ( about N20,250) is the most counterfeited.