Spate of Funny Money Is No Laughing Matter at a Tribeca Eatery

Tribeca’s Kitchen owner Andy Koutsoudakis with two fake $50 bills he says a customer discarded, probably out of fear of being caught with them. Photo: Carl Glassman/Tribeca Trib

Andy Koutsoudakis, owner of Tribeca's Kitchen, has a warning for other merchants: Watch your money.

The restaurant, at 200 Church St., has been hit with a rash of bogus bills, most recently this month.

"It's important to spread the word," Koutsoudakis said, "so store owners can be more aware and keep their eyes open."

Koutsoudakis said that the first pair of thieves, who passed counterfeit $20s, immediately aroused his suspicion. "They came in and didn't sit down, they looked at the cash register, went to the bathroom, looked at the cakes in the cases." They finally ordered two pieces of pie to go and got separate checks.

"A few minutes after they left," Koutsoudakis continued, "the cashier rushed into the kitchen and said, 'Andy, Andy, they gave me two fake $20s!'"

It wasn't until she had felt the bills to put them in the register, he said, that she realized they were phoney.

A restaurant surveillance video caught clear images of the men, which  Koutsoudakis passed on to police.

A few weeks later, a customer paid the waiter with a $100 bill. The cashier marked it with a counterfeit-detecting pen and it came up fake.

"They told him it was no good and then he gave them good money," said Koutsoudakis, who was not in the restaurant at the time.

Earlier this month the man returned. After enjoying a dinner of steak tips, he took a thick wad of money from his pocket and gave the waiter a $50 bill.

"The cashier recognized it right away,"  Koutsoudakis recalled. "She tells the waiter and he comes into the kitchen and says, 'Andy, we have a problem.' I go to the customer, throw the bill on the table and say, 'Do you have something better? This is no good.’ He gives me some other bills that were ok” and then goes into the bathroom. About an hour later they cleaned the bathroom and found two counterfeit $50 bills in the garbage can. I guess he was afraid he would be caught with them."

Koutsoudakis said his cashiers look out for fake bills. "But if it's a good counterfeit and you're busy," he noted with dismay, "you can get stuck."

George Liropoulos, a 1st Precinct crime prevention officer, told the Trib that reports of counterfeit bills, including those from Tribeca's Kitchen, are forwarded to the U.S. Secret Service. “We don’t investigate or make a police report,” he said.  Special Agent Michael Seremetis, a public information officer in the Secret Service’s New York field office, said the agency does not comment on investigations. But he, as well as Liropoulos, said they have not seen an uptick in local reports of counterfeit bills.

Seremetis, however, urges merchants to check this Secret Service web site and this from the U.S. Currency Education Program for tips on identifying fake cash.