Crime Scene TapeIowa DCI agents are working with police in Dubuque after more businesses reported customers using counterfeit cash over the weekend. Sheila Blatz, owner of the Key West True Value hardware store in Dubuque, told KCRG-TV a woman used a $100 bill to purchase window cleaner.

Blatz thought the bill looked and felt real, but her bank confirmed it was fake. “You might as well have robbed me at gun point because basically that’s what this is,” Blatz said. Blatz was able to catch the woman’s license plate number and is confident she’ll be caught soon. Dubuque Police say local businesses have reported more than a couple dozen transactions involving counterfeit bills in the past month.

“With that many incidents, and it is a federal offense, they’ll be in hot water when they do get caught and I am sure they will get caught,” Blatz said. Dubuque Police say they have an investigator assigned exclusively to the recent rash of counterfeit bills.