{"id":321839,"date":"2026-11-05T18:02:08","date_gmt":"2026-11-05T18:02:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/321839\/"},"modified":"2026-11-05T18:02:08","modified_gmt":"2026-11-05T18:02:08","slug":"suspects-used-fake-cash-scheme-to-get-12k-in-returns-at-pa-stores-ag-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/321839\/","title":{"rendered":"Suspects used fake cash scheme to get 12K in returns at PA stores, AG says"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/1793901728_611_4a0a8774-983a-4c94-a3b0-d2630c50cec6_1653489233.file.png\" width=\"48\" height=\"48\" alt=\"Raquel Ciampi\" loading=\"lazy\"\/>ALLEGHENY COUNTY, Pa. \u2014<\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"1\">Four New York men are facing charges in a scheme to buy merchandise with counterfeit cash and return it for real money.<\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"3\">Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday says those four men targeted stores in 16 counties, including Allegheny. <\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"4\">According to officials, Fitzroy James, Fabian Coke, Gabriel Young, and Christopher Nicholas targeted retailers like Kohl\u2019s, Target, Home Depot, Lowe\u2019s to make purchases using counterfeit cash.  <\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"5\">According to court records, they were able to profit by at least $12,436 from the returns. <\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"6\">\u201cThis out-of-state band of thieves knowingly passed fake bills with a plan to return items for real cash \u2014 that is organized retail theft, pure and simple,\u201d Attorney General Sunday.<\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"7\">In addition to Allegheny County, records say the group frequented stores in Berks, Blair, Bucks, Centre, Chester, Columbia, Cumberland, Dauphin, Delaware, Lancaster, Lebanon, Monroe, Montgomery, Northampton and York counties.<\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"8\">All four have been charged with organized retail theft, dealing in proceeds of unlawful activity, conspiracy, and other offenses.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ALLEGHENY COUNTY, Pa. \u2014 Four New York men are facing charges in a scheme to buy merchandise with&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":321840,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[130569,894,130567,66351,99311,130560,4599,130563,130566,130562,130564,18364,27458,86316,130561,130555,28,73,75,74,130565,27464,130568],"class_list":["post-321839","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-16-counties","tag-allegheny-county","tag-cash-returns","tag-christopher-nicholas","tag-conspiracy-charges","tag-counterfeit-cash","tag-dave-sunday","tag-fabian-coke","tag-fake-bills","tag-fitzroy-james","tag-gabriel-young","tag-home-depot","tag-kohls","tag-lowes","tag-new-york-men","tag-organized-retail-theft","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news","tag-retail-scheme","tag-target","tag-unlawful-activity"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321839","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=321839"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321839\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/321840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=321839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=321839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=321839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}