PANAMA CITY — A couple of Panama City residents have been arrested on charges they made purchases with fake money at a local business that builds homes for the impoverished, according to Bay County court documents.
John Christopher Welsh, 29, and Tiffany Vontez Laramore, 26, were arrested Monday after being identified in a police photo lineup as two people who came into the Habitat for Humanity, 1515 E. 11th St., in November and spent about $30 in counterfeit money.
The Habitat ReStore clerk, on Nov. 20, told police one of the two was a man with a missing front tooth and the other as a woman with “pretty skin and dark hair,” according to Panama City Police reports. The clerk didn’t realize the three $10 bills were fake until attempting to deposit them at Trustmark Bank, police reported.
The two entered the business as it was about to close and bought a few miscellaneous items. Laramore, a cosmologist, exchanged one $10 bill for the merchandise and told the clerk she could give her 20 percent off for a haircut, police reported. Welsh, listed as unemployed, spent two more fake $10 bills, the clerk told police.
Both Welsh and Laramore went to the police station Monday on an unrelated matter when they were taken to an interview room, police reported. During the interview, Welsh told police he got the money from an individual he would not name but he knew it was counterfeit, police said.
Attempts to contact Welsh or Laramore were unsuccessful.
According to Welsh’s arrest affidavit, a previous attempt to pass the bill was thwarted because of the money’s suspicious appearance. Police reported that Laramore was also present on the previous occasion. However, she told police she did not pass any money at the Habitat for Humanity.
Laramore has been charged with one count of uttering a forged bill and is being held on a $5,000 bond while Welsh was charged with two counts and has a combined bond of $3,000.
The bank confiscated the bills.