VERO BEACH — A Burger King employee alerted police after a man tried to use a counterfeit $10 bill to pay for his order, according to Vero Beach Police.
William Cloninger, 28, of the 2000 block of 35th Avenue in Vero Beach, faces two felony charges of utter forged or counterfeit bill, possession of forged bank bills, making or possessing instruments for forging bills, and a misdemeanor give false name while detained.
Officers with the Vero Beach Police Department apprehended Cloninger near the 700 block of 18th Street in Vero Beach. He had fled Burger King on a bicycle.
Cloninger attempted to conceal his identity by giving a false name because he had at least one active warrant out for his arrest in Broward County, according to the police report. But police responded to the address Cloninger gave them, and a resident identified Cloninger by his real name.
During questioning, Cloninger told detectives two men taught him how to make counterfeit bills while staying at a halfway house in Fort Lauderdale. When he arrived at a Vero Beach halfway house, he used the house’s printer to make more bills, which he said he successfully passed at Kwik Stop, Taco Bell, multiple stores in the Indian River Mall, Walmart, 7-Eleven, McDonalds, and other stores in the County, according to the arrest affidavit.
Detectives recovered five counterfeit $10 bills in the 1800 block of 7th Avenue where Cloninger said he tossed the fake money. They also recovered a printer, nine counterfeit $10 bills, a box of paper used for printing counterfeit bills, a paper cutting device, a bag of cuttings from printing the $10 bills, and a template of a $10 bill with the same serial number as the fake bills, according to the report.
Authorities also took pictures of Cloninger’s green ink-stained hands, which Cloninger told authorities was a result of printing the bills, the report states.
Cloninger is being held in the Indian River County Jail in lieu of $35,500 bond.
