Police: After Counterfeit $100 Bill Passed in Darien Store, Four Arrests

Three counterfeit $100 bills were presented at stores in Darien Saturday night, and one was accepted — which later resulted in the arrests of three New York City residents and another from Newark, New Jersey, police said.

Darien police made the arrests and confiscated $3,300 in phony money. They were helped by an off-duty Stamford police sergeant who saw the suspects get into a car,  and Fairfield police, who stopped the car in Westport after the vehicle’s description was broadcast.

All four suspects are in their 20s. Police described what happened with this account, including accusations not proven in court:

At 6:45 p.m., police were told that a person was trying to buy merchandise with counterfeit money at Pet Value, a store at the Goodwives Shopping Center, 25 Old Kings Hwy. North. When police got there, the suspect had already left.

Police found that one suspect was able to pay for items at the store with a counterfeit $100 bill, and two others had tried to do the same thing at two other stores in the shopping center — Chocolate Works and Wine Port of Darien.

At Chocolate Works, one of the $100 bills was left behind, and it turned out that it had the exact same serial numbers as the one accepted at Pet Valu — confirmation that both bills were counterfeit.

Police got the descriptions of the suspects from employees at the stores and from an off-duty Stamford police sergeant who also saw the car they got into, a 2018 Chevrolet Malibu. Darien police broadcast the description to surrounding police agencies.

That resulted in Fairfield Police spotting the Malibu and stopping it shortly before 10 p.m. in Westport, about three hours after the original report to Darien police.

Darien officers went to the traffic stop and were able to identify three of the four people in the car and arrest them: Shelton Petit-Brun, 28, Dayvon Jordan, 24; Destiny Poole, 20. All three live in New York City.

Police later determined that the fourth person in the car — Raquan Hicks, 23, of Sunset Avenue in Newark, New Jersey — was also involved in the effort to pass counterfeit money in Darien. He also was arrested.

When police searched the suspects and the car “numerous pieces of evidence were seized connecting them to the Darien incidents” and other incidents elsewhere. Petit-Brun had rented the car.

At Darien Police Headquarters the four were searched as part of the arrest process, and police found more counterfeit bills on them. The total count was $3,300 in phony $100 bills, all with the same serial number.

All four stayed in jail until Monday, when they were scheduled to appear in state Superior Court in Stamford.

Here are the charges and bail amounts for each:

Three of the four received identical charges; Raquan Hicks had some different charges.

The three with identical charges were each accused of three counts of first-degree forgery, three counts of conspiracy to commit first-degree forgery, one count of sixth-degree larceny and two counts of conspiracy to commit sixth-degree larceny.

Hicks was charged with one count of first-degree forgery, three counts of conspiracy to commit first-degree forgery and three counts to commit sixth-degree larceny.

Police found that Fairfield Police had previously issued an arrest warrant for Poole, of 102nd St., East Harlem, charging her with first-degree failure to appear in court. Her rearrest had been ordered last September in state Superior Court in Bridgeport after a May 2017 arrest on charges including misdemeanor larceny and felony forgery.

Another $25,000 was added to her bond, bringing it to a total of $75,000. The other three suspects were each held on bonds of $35,000.