GNAW BONE — A Franklin man was charged with a Level 6 felony after he reportedly paid a bill at Gnaw Mart with two counterfeit $10 bills.
Just after noon Aug. 31, police were dispatched to Gnaw Mart for a report of a suspicious vehicle that had dropped two men off with backpacks who started walking to a church campground.
Another man — later identified as John R. C. Miller, 45 — stayed in the vehicle and was driving around the building, an affidavit by prosecutor investigator Steve Brahaum states.
Miller then went inside Gnaw Mart and gave a cashier two $10 counterfeit bills, left and drove toward Nashville. The cashier said she checked the bills with a special marker and went out to the vehicle to tell Miller he needed to pay.
His bill was $17.88 and only had $8 on him. He said he would come back to pay the rest. Brown County Sheriff’s Deputy Chad Williams took the bills and a piece of paper with the license plate on it from the cashier, the affidavit states.
The two men wearing backpacks were later found by Det. Paul Henderson walking near Nicole Drive and Four Mile Ridge Road. They said Miller had offered to give them a ride to Brown County to go rock hunting. The two men rode with Miller to the gas station in Gnaw Bone, but decided to get out there and start walking because Miller was “freaking them out,” the affidavit states.
They said Miller had come back out to the car asking if they had money for him to pay for something. One of the men gave him a few dollars before they left on foot to go rock hunting in the creek bank by the church campground, the report said.
Gnaw Mart provided Williams with security footage of Miller making the transaction with counterfeit money.
Cashier Misty Reeves told The Democrat on Nov. 13 that it didn’t seem like Miller knew what was going on and that he was trying to “make it good” with the gas station.
