The Taco Bell 2 Dollar Bill Incident

Of all the various stories and anecdotes surrounding the almost cult-like popularity of the infamous US two-dollar bill, here is arguably one of the most interesting, and surprising, ones of all. It allegedly happened in a Taco Bell restaurant, but the same general circumstances have been recorded in numerous cases, with people being accused, and even arrested, for suspicion of counterfeiting, simply because the recipient of the bill didn't think it was real money. In this particular incarnation, the customer went into a Taco Bell store and ordered items totaling less than two dollars. When he attempted to pay for his order with a two-dollar bill, however, that's when the weirdness really started.

The employer, with a strange look on his face, tells the customer to wait a minute, and proceeds to walk back and show his manager the bill. The employee asks his manager if the bill is real currency. His manager says he has never seen one of those before, and that the employee should ask for another type off payment. Then, the employee reportedly goes back up to the customer and tells him that they do not take those. Since the customer only had a fifty dollar bill with him at the time, he is forced to pay with that, which would require opening the safe to access the customers change. The manager, however, now very distrusting of the customer who he thinks has just tried to grift him, does not want to open the safe with the customer in the store.

The employee than asks want the manager wants him to tell the customer, and the manager says to tell him to come back when he has REAL money. The employee than refuses to tell the customer what the manager said, so the manager ten approaches the customer and tells him that he doesn't take large bills that late at night. Now, keep in mind that this supposedly around eight in the evening, and they are in a well-lit mall with 100 other stores around them. An excuse no doubt, so the customer simply says "Well, here's a two", thinking he will simply pay and leave. The manager has different ideas though, and he says that they don't take those bills either.

The customer, obviously growing a bit annoyed by this time, asks the manager "Why the hell not?" to which the manager replies "I think you KNOW why". When the customer replied that he actually did not understand why they wouldn't take his two-dollar bill, the manager asked him to please leave, before he called security on the customer. Well, at that point the customer is fed up with all this and simply replies to the manager that he can just go ahead and call them, which the manager then promptly does.

Shortly thereafter a security guard approaches the manager and asks what's up. The manager says that this customer is trying to give him some funny money, to which the security asks more info about. The manager states that the customer is trying to pay with a fake two-dollar bill. The security guard questions why someone would fake a two-dollar bill, but continues to request to see the bill from the customer. After checking out the bill, the guard turns to the manager and tells him it doesn't look phony to him. The security guard then asks the manager what's wrong with the bill, and the manager says that it's a phony. The security guard says that it doesn't appear phony to him. The manager says "But it's a two-dollar bill", to which the security guard replies that indeed it is, and the manager then says, with a straight face I might add, "Well, there's no such thing, is there?"

Eventually, the customer and the security guard both look at the manager like he is a complete idiot and it dawns on the guy that he really had no clue what he was talking about this whole time. Subsequently, the customer was given his food for free, with a couple of extras thrown in for forgiveness. What a crazy thing to imagine that people have even gone to jail, simply for using a two-dollar bill. But hey, at least he got free food.