Man Arrested in Maplewood for Fake $100 Bills in Woodbridge

Woodbridge, NJ - A man was arrested Tuesday in Maplewood for passing fake $100 bills in Woodbridge Township last month, Woodbridge police Captain Roy Hoppock said.

On Feb. 22, Patch warned Woodbridge business owners to be alert to the counterfeit Benjamins. At that time, at least six different shops and restaurants had reported receiving the doctored cash, among them M-Gyro in Fords, Colonia Fried Chicken, Walgreens in Colonia, Chick-fil-A in Woodbridge and Aldi Foods in Fords.

Someone altered $5 bills to make them look like $100s and used them to pay for food and other items, police said at the time. One of the restaurants captured the suspects on security video.

On Tuesday, Maplewood police arrested Jalen Dawkins, of Orange, on an arrest warrant out of Woodbridge in connection to the fake money. Woodbridge police talked to the affected business owners and after an investigation, they signed an arrest warrant for Dawkins.

Dawkins has been charged with passing the counterfeit money at the M-Gyro in Fords and the Colonia Walgreens. He was charged with two counts of forgery and two counts of theft by deception and taken to the Middlesex County Jail on a $20,000 bond, with no 10% option.

Many reports of fake $100s have popped up throughout Central New Jersey, including just last week at the Manalapan Wegmans, the Shop-Rite in Aberdeen, and at the Holmdel A&P. In 2014, it was reported that an international counterfeiting ring flooded the New York City metropolitan market with millions in fake $100 bills.