Arrests Made in Three Counterfeit Bill Cases
In early February 2016, three different Spring Hill merchants reported that an unidentified white male and female used counterfeit $20 bills to complete a variety of fraudulent transactions.
The three locations victimized were the McDonald’s located at 4166 Mariner Blvd., CVS Pharmacy, 12990 Cortez Blvd. and CVS Pharmacy, 11115 Spring Hill Drive.
Detectives obtained surveillance video from all three locations showing the two suspects making the fraudulent transactions.
Images were taken from the video and distributed via the Sheriff’s Office Facebook page and website.
Numerous calls were generated from those images identifying the two individuals as James and Stephanie Swartz. The couple was arrested on March 10 at their home on Tanner Road in Spring Hill.
Both were charged with 20 counts of Uttering Counterfeit Notes in connection with the CVS Pharmacy cases. James Swartz was also charged with one additional count of Uttering a Counterfeit Note in connection with the McDonald’s case.
In all, the couple passed 21 counterfeit $20 notes at the three establishments.
Detectives noted none of the counterfeit bills contained any security features found on authentic $20 bills such as security threads, color shifting ink or a hologram of President Andrew Jackson.
Additional merchants also reported receiving counterfeit $20 notes barring the same Series and Serial Numbers passed by the Swartz’s in these three cases. The investigation remains active.
