SOUTH PORTLAND — A New York City man is facing multiple charges after allegedly bringing four Big Apple juveniles to the Maine Mall for the purpose of passing counterfeit cash, police said.
The sequence of events leading to Monday afternoon’s arrest of Andrew Cupidore, 20, began when a mall employee told a South Portland police officer a teenage girl had tried to pass a $100 counterfeit bill, according to Sgt. Steven Webster.
The officer spoke with the girl briefly and learned that there were three other teenage girls from New York attempting to pass counterfeit bills in the mall, Webster said.
Within an hour, all four girls had been detained and more than $1,000 in counterfeit $100 bills was recovered, Webster said.
Cupidore was found hiding in a mall bathroom and arrested, Webster said.
He was charged with aggravated forgery, a Class B felony, and endangering the welfare of a child, a Class D misdemeanor, and brought to Cumberland County Jail.
Webster said Cupidore is suspected of bringing the girls north to pass the counterfeit currency and likely would have kept the legitimate currency the girls would have received as change.
The juveniles are being held at the Long Creek Detention Facility while Cupidore remains jailed on $25,000 bail. More arrests are expected as the investigation continues.
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