Deputies: Man used template he found on Pinterest to print counterfeit money at Pasco library

NEW PORT RICHEY (FOX 13) - A Pasco County man is accused of printing counterfeit money at a local library, the Pasco County Sheriff's Office said.

Levy Newberry, 29, is accused of printing counterfeit 5 10, 20, and 50 dollar bills on a printer at a Pasco County public library.

"He found a template on Pinterest to print bills and decide to give it a whirl himself." Pasco County Sheriff's Office Detective Spencer Hubbell said.

According to a police report, Newberry printed the fake money on resume paper he bought at Walmart and later tried selling the fake cash on Facebook.

In the report, Newberry admitted to deputies he had a buyer willing to purchase $500 worth of counterfeit money in exchange for $250 worth of real money.

"It wasn't very good," Detective Hubbell said. "It was on plain paper quality, but he didn't really have a specific reason for printing it. He just said he wanted to see what they would turn out like."

That curiosity landed him in jail after he allegedly gave some of the cash to his landlord, who called the sheriff's office.

Investigators recovered more than $700 of fake currency and charged Newberry with forgery.

As Detective Hubbell explained, motion picture money can be legally purchased online, but many times people use it illegally, trying to pass it for real money. Other times, scammers are more sophisticated, bleaching smaller bills like 1s and 5s and re-printing them as 50s and 100s.

"The US bill is generally made of cotton and linen," Detective Hubbell said. "So it's very difficult to re-create that type of texture, but if you wash a bill and it's done correctly, a lot of them have the ability to pass the counterfeit pen test."