Fake cash tossed on highway causes stir
Posted: July 15, 2017 - 4:00am

GADSDEN, Ala. (AP) — It must have made for an unusual 911 call.
Annika Snead of Southside was heading home from work on U.S. 431 Wednesday evening when she had to slam on her brakes to avoid hitting a vehicle stopping to pull off the road just north of Attalla in Etowah County.
She thought the man might have had car trouble, then she saw him get out and pick something that looked like paper up.
As she traveled on, she saw two vehicles stopped one behind the other, and she saw a man standing on the road throw what looked like a bunch of money in the air. A number of people stopped cars to pick up the money.
Concerned for their safety, Snead called 9-1-1 and reported the incident. She estimated it happened about 5:20 p.m.
Etowah County Chief Deputy Michael Barton said the 9-1-1 call was received, and deputies responded quickly. But by the time they arrived, there were no vehicles stopped in the area, and there was no money around.
Snead said she saw the two vehicles drive away. One appeared to be a white Mercedes, the other a silver or white "bright-colored" vehicle.
The man who threw the money appeared to be between 50 to 60 years old, about 6 feet 1 to 6 feet 3 inches tall, with a slim build.
At a nearby Jet Pep gas station, clerk Vivian Hicks didn't see what happened, but she had a customer come in with three of the bills, talking about it.
"You could tell they were fake," Hicks said, since some kind of Japanese-looking symbols were on the bills. But from a distance, she said, the customer said they looked like $20s.
"I bet people were getting excited about it," she said.
The customer told her, as Snead said, that someone threw the money out.
Snead said it was troubling that someone would do something like that to create havoc on a busy highway. It was in an especially treacherous area, she said, as southbound vehicles came around a curve.
"I had to slam on my brakes," Snead said, to avoid a collision.