NASHVILLE, Tenn. – A Florida couple has been accused of making and spending fake money in Hermitage to pay for drugs and their rent.
Officials with Metro Police said 41-year-old Michael David Fenton and 45-year-old Missy L. Grooms, of Bradenton, Florida, were arrested Friday morning at their Vista Inn motel room on Old Hickory Boulevard.
The suspects have been accused of converting $1 bills into $50 bills by using a computer and printer.
Inside the hotel room, detectives and Secret Service agents found five $1 bills soaking in a bleaching agent to dissolve the ink, 34 sheets of paper that contained a copy of a $50 bill and the electronics.
Items purchased from local garage sales were also found in the room. They allegedly used counterfeit cash to pay for the items, but received real currency in change.
The couple told police their counterfeiting operation helped pay their rent and support a heroin habit.
Both were taken to the Metro Jail and charged with criminal simulation. They remain jailed on a $100,000 bond each.
