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Nicolas Munoz
Boom Burger may be a cash-only restaurant, but they’d much prefer it if the cash isn’t counterfeit.
The popular Westhampton Beach burger-and-wings joint on Montauk Highway was one of numerous small businesses, from Sayville to East Hampton, that were recently beset by fake $100 bills.
A Boom Burger customer ordered a triple-cheeseburger with onion rings on September 11, and while he did leave some money in the tip jar upon his departure, it was from change made after he passed a counterfeit $100 bill.
The bill passed the “marker test” that is supposed to flag counterfeit bills, though it reportedly had a number of other signs it was fake — it didn’t contain a blue security thread, and the serial number spacing appeared to be off.
After the man left with his noncounterfeit change from the illicit bill, another man entered the store and tried to pass off a second $100 — but this time employees didn’t accept the bill out of an abundance of caution.
Up until the counterfeit bill was passed, it was just another normal day at Boom Burger, said co-owner Anthony Catanzaro, and his business partner was working up front when he received the bill in question that afternoon. “It passed the marker test, but the feel was off,” Catanzaro said. “We didn’t think too much about it at first, but it was a little different.”
After the customer left with his change, and the triple-decker burger, the owners took a closer look and then used an infrared light that is used to detect the bill’s security strip. That strip wasn’t on the bill, and they determined then that it likely was a fake.
Soon after, another customer came in and tried to pass a $100 after ordering his food. Now on the extra-alert for fake bills, one of the co-owners looked at the bill, believed something might be wrong with it, and gave it back to the customer.
The owners asked if the man had another bill, Catanzaro said. “The guy seemed a little oblivious of the situation,” he added, and left without buying anything.
“They shouldn’t be doing this anywhere — but they go after the little mom-and-pop shops,” Catanzaro said. Now the restaurant is taking more time to screen bills and is purchasing a machine that screens for counterfeit bills.
A few days after Boom Burger and two Southampton Village businesses reported that someone used counterfeit $100 bills at their businesses, a 22-year-old Queens man was arrested for, according to Suffolk County Police, passing counterfeit currency at multiple businesses between the end of August and September 17.
The suspect, Nicolas Murillo-Munoz, was in Southampton Town Police custody before he was turned over to County Police on September 22. He was charged locally with three counts of criminal possession of a forged instrument in the first degree, a felony, plus three counts of petit larceny and three counts of criminal possession of stolen property, all misdemeanors.
County Police charged Munoz with 11 counts of criminal possession of a forged instrument in the first degree, a felony punishable by up to 15 years in prison. They say he passed fake $100 bills at 10 businesses, from as far west as Sayville to as far east as Buckley’s Flower Shop in East Hampton.
Southampton Town Police first got wind of the counterfeit bill crime wave on September 7, when police responded to a report of a counterfeit $100 bill being used at Deli Delight in East Quogue.
Hildreth’s Home Goods and Topiare Flower Shop in Southampton Village took to social media on September 19 to report they, too, had received counterfeit bills that had passed the marker test. Topiare reported on its Instagram page that the shop had gotten its first counterfeit bill in 33 years in business. “More importantly, so have quite a few other shops in Jobs Lane! Please, if you are shopping, tell the store owners that there are counterfeit $100s being spent! They typically try and buy something inexpensive to get good change back,” the post states.
Hildreth’s posted a photo of a counterfeit $100 bill the same day. “Note how the serial numbers have no spaces,” the post states.
The bills kept popping up.
Bottle Hampton on County Road 39 reported that a customer had passed a $100 bill and been given $77.20 in change for a purchase on September 22.
Also on September 22, Densieski Farm Stand on Lewis Road in East Quogue reported that a Hispanic man with dark hair had bought several produce items and paid for them with a counterfeit $100 bill.
The counterfeit bill passer struck again that same day at Buckley’s Flower Shop on Montauk Highway in East Hampton, where a customer purchased a bag of potting soil for $15.19 and paid for it with a fake $100 bill.
The manager of the store thought the bill “felt strange,” she told police. She went outside and wrote down the license plate number of the Honda the man drove off in. The manager took the bill to the bank, where it was confirmed that it was counterfeit.
The manager contacted police and gave a detailed description of the man, including that she noticed he had a tattoo on his left forearm, along with the license plate number and a description of the Honda.
At the time of his arrest, Munoz was driving a 2002 blue Honda CRV with a switched license plate, according to County Police.
“This was an extensive investigation by all agencies working together to halt this crime spree that was occurring throughout Suffolk County,” said Southampton Town Police in a press release this week.
Murillo-Munoz is being held at the Suffolk County Jail in Riverside awaiting arraignment in Southampton Town Justice Court.
