Gainesville Police arrested an Oregon man Friday night on charges of possession of counterfeit money after he reportedly used fake $20 bills at two Gainesville restaurants.
At about 9:30 p.m. Friday, Adrian Martushev, 21, attempted to purchase two drinks at Maude’s Classic Cafe and then an ice pop at The Hyppo Gourmet Ice Pops with two counterfeit $20 bills, according to a police report. When police saw him leaving The Hyppo, they told him to stop, but Martushev ran away, according to the report. He was tackled by an officer, causing him to urinate on himself, Gainesville Police spokesman Officer Ben Tobias wrote in an email.
It wasn’t the first time Martushev had tried to pay with counterfeit money, said Micah Jameson, a 25-year-old employee at the Starbucks in Union Street Station. He tried to use a fake $20 at the Starbucks about two weeks earlier.
“There was no water seal, it had a slight white line on the right side, and the bill had curved in on itself. You could normally see abrasions, but I didn’t see any,” said Jameson. “The best part was, he asked me why I thought it was fake.”
Jameson said he initially didn’t think anything of the incident, but he soon heard about Relish, Maude’s and other businesses receiving counterfeit bills.
He chased Martushev with police after seeing him run behind Liquid Ginger on Southeast Fourth Avenue.
Martushev’s wallet had ten additional counterfeit $20 bills, one real $20 bill and a Florida driver’s license that was not his, according to the report.
The manager of The Hyppo, Brent Smith, said because the shop had received several counterfeit bills in the past three weeks, he didn’t think Martushev worked alone.
“If it’s just one person, he’s done a very good job of distributing the bills,” Smith said.
Tobe Terrell, a custodian, found a stack of $20 bills in Martushev’s room in the Zen Center and Hostel. He said in the three months Martushev paid to live at the hostel, he never received a fake bill — just $5 and $10 in cash.
Terrell said Martushev was strange and rarely came out of his room to speak to anyone during the times he was there.
“We did speculate, but nobody had any idea what in the world he was up to,” Terrell said. “All of a sudden, there’s seven police officers chasing him. He was a guy you could never get to know.”
Police took Martushev to the Alachua County Jail on charges of possessing a false bill, uttering a false bill, possessing a false driver’s license and resisting arrest. As of press time, he is being held in lieu of a $22,500 bond.
[A version of this story ran on page 1 on 2/9/2015 under the headline “Oregon man arrested with counterfeit bills"]
Correction: In the original version of the story, Hyppo Gourmet Ice Pops was referred to as Hyppo Gourmet Ice Cream Pops.
