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RCMP: Counterfeit $100 bills making the rounds in WHistler

$800 in fake money seized by police

Retailers should be on the lookout for bogus $100 bills after forgers took in two Whistler Village businesses last week.

On April 4, the RCMP received a report that an East Indian male and female entered a local store and purchased $130 in goods using counterfeit money. They then asked for change for another $100.

Soon afterwards, the RCMP discovered that the suspects did the same in another nearby store, purchasing $225 in goods and also asking for change for another $100. All told, eight of the counterfeit bills were recovered.

The RCMP is investigating. Neither store had video surveillance.

Stores should never make change for large bills and should always check for various security features. A complete list of security features is online at the Bank of Canada website, www.bankofcanada.ca/en/banknotes/index.html. The BoC uses the acronym TiLL, for Touch, Tilt, Look through the bill and Look at the appearance of each security feature.

Some of the features include raised ink, color shifts in the metallic strip, see-through ghost images, hidden watermarks and security dashes. All Canadian bills also have features that are only visible using UV light.

 

Backcountry calls resolved safely

The Cake Hole area behind Whistler Mountain was a popular place to get lost last week.

At 4 p.m. on April 2, the RCMP received a report from ski patrol involving two female snowboarders, aged 50 and 55 years old, who were lost on the south side of Whistler Mountain. The patrollers got the first call just after 2 p.m., and the police - using GPS data from one of the women's cell phone providers - managed to pinpoint their location in the Cake Hole area. A ski patrol team with a member of the RCMP went into the area at 6 p.m. and led the women to the Cheakamus Lake Forest Service Road, where they were met by a snowmobile and then transported to an RCMP vehicle that returned them to their own car around 9:15 p.m.

On Apr. 30 at 3:30 p.m., ski patrol received a report of two skiers lost in the Cake Hole area since that morning. There were originally three skiers in the party, but one member of the group stayed high and was able to hike out. Shortly afterwards he received a text from the other skiers saying that one member had fallen and cut his face, and that they were caught in a cliff area. Ski patrol attempted to contact and then locate the men, but weren't able to get a GPS location.

The Whistler RCMP contacted Search and Rescue to organize a long line rescue, and were in the air around 6 p.m. when they received word that the men were able to ski out on their own. The injury was minor and they were in good condition.

The lost skiers were a 20-year-old female and 26-year-old male, both from Vancouver.

 

Man sought for lewd behaviour

The RCMP is looking for the public's assistance in identifying a man who was masturbating along the Valley Trail between the village and Brio staff housing. At 11:40 p.m., a male described as five-foot-eleven, wearing a black leather jacket, black ball cap and jeans approached a woman. She went to her residence and called police, who searched the area and contacted bar staff in the village, but the male was not located. The RCMP received an anonymous call in February regarding a male masturbating in the same area, and say it's possible that it was the same person.

 

Rings taken from windowsill

A couple staying in a local timeshare returned home on April 1 and discovered that their wedding rings, valued at $25,000, had been taken from the windowsill where they were left. The RCMP is also investigating who may have had access to the building.

 

For the record

In last week's RCMP report, there were a number of errors. Regarding the 12-year-old girl hit by a vehicle at Highway 99 and Alta Lake Road, the story did not include the fact that the first driver stopped and waved the girl through, where she was struck by another vehicle. In regard to a story in Pemberton where a woman was pepper-sprayed, the suspect was identified by witnesses and not by the victim. As for the story of the police search for an individual in two assaults, it was a group of four individuals walking home that were assaulted by 10 to 12 individuals - including a man with a shaved head, six feet tall with a blue and white-striped hoodie who may have knocked another man unconscious earlier in the evening after picking a fight.

The four individuals that were attacked sustained a number of serious injuries, as the suspect wielded a baton in the attack.

One of the males was taken to a Vancouver hospital with a broken hand and finger that required a pin. He also had a broken jaw, which required three plates to repair and bruised kidneys. The victim had to return home as a result of the attack.

One male sustained a broken nose and seven stitches to his cheek.

If you have any information on the attack - which occurred at roughly 3:40 a.m. on March 26 on the 6100 block of Eagle Drive - please contact the RCMP at 604-932-3044 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477).