Scooters And One Wheels
Christchurch teen ripped off after paying pretend cash for scooters
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The fake $ 50 bills were paid for by a couple who stole a Christchurch teenager’s electric scooter.
An 18-year-old Christchurcher is “gutted” after a couple paid him $ 700 for their electric scooter in fake notes.
The teenager’s mother, who doesn’t want her son named for possible embarrassment, said he listed his e-scooter on the Facebook marketplace a few days ago.
At around 10 p.m. on Saturday night, a man checked up on Facebook offering to buy it, and they agreed he could come over to pick it up.
“They said they were here and didn’t come to the door,” said the mother.
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The Sonic brand electric scooter that was handed over in Christchurch for a stack of counterfeit $ 50 bills.
“I didn’t really think it was that strange at the time.”
The teenager helped a man and woman load the 600-watt Sonic-branded scooter into a silver Holden sedan car, and the woman handed him a zip-lock bag full of fake $ 50 bills.
“He made a mistake by not counting it, but even if he had, he wouldn’t have seen in the dark that they were all wrong because they also feel pretty real.”
She said her son realized what had happened when he got back inside, but by then it was too late.
The Facebook account he was contacted with was deleted shortly afterwards.
On Sunday, the family reported the crime and handed the counterfeit currency to the police.
A police spokesman said they are evaluating the information provided to see what they can do.
The incident came just weeks after counterfeit money was discovered in Rangiora and reports of counterfeit banknotes were published last year.
The teenager’s mother from Christchurch said she was “a bit shocked” about what happened to her son.
“I can’t believe people would do that.”
“He is only 18 years old and too trusting. Unfortunately, he had to learn that lesson the hard way and is quite disappointed with himself. “
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How to spot a counterfeit banknote. (Video first published in 2019)
“My message would just be to really check and count the money handed over on these online sales.”
In June 2020, police urged the public to watch out for counterfeit banknotes after a flood of counterfeit fifties was found in the South Island from Christchurch to Oamaru.
A 31-year-old Timaru man was arrested in connection with the counterfeiting, but police said it was unknown how many of the banknotes, mostly $ 50 denominations, had been put into circulation.
In early January, a Canterbury punter was “shocked and upset” after paying out three counterfeit $ 100 bills at a Rangiora Harness Racing Club.
The police told him at the time that there wasn’t much they could do.