WENTZVILLE — A St. Louis County woman caught with $16,250 in counterfeit bills has been arrested after a shopping spree at retailers in the St. Louis metro region over the past several months.
Jaymie Boggs, 46, who police say is homeless, was arrested Sunday in the parking lot of a Wentzville retailer. Police found methamphetamine and counterfeit U.S. currency in various denominations in her vehicle. They also found numerous receipts from stores across the region, according to Wentzville Police Department spokesperson Sergeant Jacob Schmidt.
“Our detectives continue to investigate this case, and it certainly looks like there was more going on than what we know right now,” Schmidt said in an interview. Schmidt said it is unclear how Boggs, who does not have a permanent address, could acquire such a large amount of counterfeit cash and how many retailers she may have defrauded using the fake money. Boggs’ last known address was in Ballwin, according to court records.
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Police had been investigating Boggs since April when she purchased $244 in merchandise from a Wentzville department store using counterfeit bills. Store security cameras capture her handing the cashier the fake money.
“Typically, people who use counterfeit money will only use a $20 or a $50 bill to make it less obvious. In this case, she didn’t,” Schmidt said. He said Wentzville police are working with other municipal police departments to identify other stores that Boggs may have targeted with her counterfeit cash.
Schmidt said investigators are still working to determine if Boggs was part of a larger counterfeit money scheme given that she lacks a permanent address.
“In typical cases of organized retail theft, which is anything beyond your typical petty shoplifting, we see that there is often some kind of support system for the perpetrators. They typically either use hotels, motels or rental cars as they pass through town,” Schmidt said.
St. Charles County Prosecuting Attorney Joe McCulloch charged Boggs on Monday with three counts of forgery. He said Boggs’ arrest represents the “largest sum of counterfeit money” used in a crime he has prosecuted during his 14 months on the job.
“Finding someone in this day and age with $16,000 in cash on their person — even when it is fake money — is a large amount of money that stands out,” McCulloch said.
Boggs is in the St. Charles County Jail on a $20,000, cash-only bond. No hearing has been set in this case, and Boggs does not have an attorney listed in court records.
