Hurricane woman charged with passing counterfeit bills in Washington County

HURRICANE – A Hurricane City woman was arrested Monday for passing at least 11 counterfeit $100 bills at five different locations throughout Hurricane City and Washington City.

On Jan. 21, officers responded to a report of a counterfeit incident at the Shell Station, located at 309 W. State Street in Hurricane, after a customer paid for an energy drink and cigarettes with a counterfeit $100 bill and collected the change, Hurricane City Police Detective Raleigh Morris said in a probable cause statement filed in connection with the arrest.

Halei E. Ludlow, of Hurricane, Utah, booking photo posted Jan. 26, 2015 | Photo courtesy of Washington County Sheriff’s booking, St. George News
Halei E. Ludlow, of Hurricane, Utah, booking photo posted Jan. 26, 2015 | Photo courtesy of Washington County Sheriff’s booking, St. George News

The bill had been taken to Zion’s Bank in a deposit and confirmed by the bank as counterfeit after it was run through the bank’s counterfeit machine.

Officers were able to identify the woman passing the counterfeit bill as 23-year-old Halei E. Ludlow through video surveillance footage, according to the statement.

While officers were at the Shell Station, it was reported that counterfeit bills were being passed at the Chevron Food Mart, located at 687 W. State Street in Hurricane, the statement said. A woman had allegedly pumped $5 worth of gas and paid with a counterfeit $100 bill and collected the change.

The woman returned later that day to the Chevron and purchased $2.21 worth of merchandise and, again, paid with a counterfeit $100 bill and collected the change. Witnesses and store surveillance footage confirmed the woman was Ludlow, Morris said in the statement.

Just before the first counterfeit report came in, Ludlow had been stopped by police as she was leaving the Hurricane City Wal-Mart, located at 3400 W. 180 North, on an unrelated traffic violation. During the stop, police noted a computer box in Ludlow’s vehicle.

Detectives responded to the Hurricane Wal-Mart and discovered that Ludlow had purchased a laptop using four $100 counterfeit bills.

Officers had also observed Ludlow had stopped at the Maverik gas station, located at 3400 W. 55 North in Hurricane, after leaving Wal-Mart. Maverik store managers were contacted and it was confirmed Ludlow paid for gas and a drink totaling $11.28 with a counterfeit $100 bill and collected the change, the statement said.

A warrant was issued for Ludlow’s arrest on Jan. 23 for passing eight counterfeit $100 bills at the four Hurricane City locations.

Additionally, Washington City Wal-Mart, located at 625 W. Telegraph Road, also reported that Ludlow paid for merchandise at their store using the counterfeit $100 bills on three separate occasions and collected cash back from her purchases, Washington City Police Detective Mike Sittre said in a probable cause statement filed in connection with the arrest.

While on patrol, Hurricane City Police Officer Chris Smith spotted Ludlow and knew that she was wanted for questioning by detectives, according to court documents. Smith detained Ludlow for questioning and she agreed to go with him to the police station for questioning.

After an interview with Hurricane City Police Sgt. Stacey Gubler, Ludlow was placed under arrest. Ludlow was booked into the Washington County Purgatory Correctional Facility on Monday.

The Washington County Attorney’s office has indicted Ludlow with the filing of Informations charging her with eight third-degree felonies for the eight Hurricane City incidents; and three third-degree felonies for forgery and three class B misdemeanors for theft by deception for the three Washington City incidents.

Persons arrested or charged are presumed innocent until found guilty in a court of law or as otherwise decided by a trier-of-fact.

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17 Comments

  • dumbbutt January 27, 2015 at 6:29 pm

    That’s some good police work there. Good job Hurricane PD

  • Justme..... January 27, 2015 at 6:45 pm

    There needs to be a double penalty for defrauding a hardworking small business owner who depends on that small profit to feed his family and pay the light bill. I don’t want to hear about her hard luck life, her drug addiction or her excuses. She needs to be put out of circulation herself.

  • Richard January 27, 2015 at 6:52 pm

    No brain no headache! Can’t believe cashiers don’t check bill a lot more carefully.

  • groanattack January 27, 2015 at 7:13 pm

    Way too much DUMB PIE being served in southern UT.

  • Dumb a$$ January 27, 2015 at 7:20 pm

    Dang tweekers! Now I’m funny too!

    • Booblyboo January 27, 2015 at 10:24 pm

      So uh like are we supposed to laugh or something.? just kind off curious because you said.. Now I can be funny to… And I’m just trying to figure out what’s so funny that’s all

      • Scott January 28, 2015 at 6:36 am

        YOUR AN idiot BOBLYBOO

        • Dr Kildare January 28, 2015 at 8:06 am

          And your a bigger IDIOT than BOOBLYBOO. Uh hey stupid try spelling properly before you open mouth and insert foot. LOL.!

    • Car4sale January 27, 2015 at 11:40 pm

      HEY I SEE YOU DELETED THE WORDS. DANG TWEEKERS FROM SAGES POST AND SAID YOU WOULD NO LONGER LET THE TERM DANG TWEEKERS BE USED HERE AGAIN… WELL THEN WHY DOES DUMBA$$ GET TO SAY DANG TWEEKERS IF ONE HAS THE TERM DANG TWEEKERS DELETED FROM THEIR COMMENT THEN IT SHOULD BE THE SAME FOR EVERYBODY

      • sagemoon January 28, 2015 at 11:42 am

        Um, I can’t say dang tweekers anymore? I’m hoping it was edited because I accidentally used the biblical word rather than dang when I wrote my post.

  • My Evil Twin January 27, 2015 at 7:28 pm

    That is one ugly white woman. . . 🙁

  • Billy Madison January 27, 2015 at 7:40 pm

    People like this should be locked up for a very long time. And, who gets stuck for the fake money? The gas stations? Walmart? Grrrrr

    • Brian January 27, 2015 at 8:24 pm

      My friend owns a gas station. If a counterfeit bill slips by, they’re just out the money.

  • koolaid January 27, 2015 at 8:49 pm

    You wanna bet she gets a harsher sentence than that guy who embezzled hundreds of thousands of dollars?

  • mshaw January 28, 2015 at 4:38 am

    Both those stations that took those bills are from India and they are cheats. I don’t know why people support them anyway. They dont keep the money in your community they send it home to India

  • Mean Momma January 28, 2015 at 11:08 am

    Well it looks like she’s been busy…. Time for a little R&R in Purgatory!

  • sagemoon January 28, 2015 at 11:42 am

    Scum bag.

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