Six people are facing charges after Scottsdale police busted the group making counterfeit $100 bills and using them at stores across the Valley.
Scottsdale police began investigating on May 9, after employees at the CVS Pharmacy near 100th Street and Bell Road discovered six fake $100 bills had been used to purchase a Money Gram several days earlier. Photo identification used to purchase and pick up the order confirmed Pamela Augustine as the sender and Kyle Calhoun as the receiver.
As the investigation continued, police were contacted on May 13 about another incident at Average Joes Ride Shop in Scottsdale. After two “frequent” customers used fake $100 bills in their April 22 transaction, employees were told to alert officers if the pair returned. On June 8, officers were called to the shop where they contacted Randy Tobin and Mandy Legan. Tobin was arrested on an outstanding warrant, but neither he nor Legan could be charged with forgery, as police could not prove they knew the money they had used was counterfeit.
A third incident brought police to another Scottsdale CVS on June 20, when Augustine used four fake $100 bills to purchase a Money Gram order. Management alerted police, but not before Augustine had left the store.
Three days later, Scottsdale detectives began surveilling a home near Scottsdale and McDowell roads after an anonymous tip about potential drug activity. Further investigation revealed Tobin, Legan, and Calhoun all lived at the house, in addition to Neal Wood, Jonathon Somercik and a sixth man. Surveillance at the residence also uncovered a Jetta registered to Augustine parked in the carport.
As police watched the home in the following days, they followed Calhoun, Augustine, Wood, and Somercik as the suspects used counterfeit bills at a nearby convenience store, the W Hotel, and Scottsdale Fashion Square Mall.
See a map of the locations impacted below.
In a June 28 traffic stop along Interstate 10 in Quartzsite, Augustine was contacted as she was headed back to California. She was arrested after a search of her Jetta revealed 25 counterfeit bills, as well as illegal drugs.
The following day, a search warrant was served at the group’s Scottsdale home. Police said Tobin and Legan were taken into custody without incident, but Wood, Somercik and Calhoun barricaded themselves in a back room before they were arrested.
A search of the home found evidence of counterfeit manufacturing, including genuine $1 bills that were in the process of being bleached to be recopied.
Further investigation revealed the incidents are tied to an ongoing U.S. Secret Service initiative tracking a series of counterfeit $100 bills between Los Angeles and Phoenix.
Calhoun, Legan, Tobin, Somercik and Wood were taken into custody on forgery charges and booked into Maricopa County 4th Avenue Jail.
