Indiana man off to prison for using dozens of fake $20s at Dayton Dragons game

Credit: MIAMI COUNTY JAIL

Credit: MIAMI COUNTY JAIL

A 53-year-old Indiana man will spend 21 months in prison for using counterfeit money at a Dayton Dragons game.

Kenneth Stopkotte, of Unionville, Ind., was sentenced Friday in U.S. District Court in Dayton.

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Stopkotte admitted that in April 2018 he attended a Dragons minor league baseball game, bringing with him most of the more than 200 counterfeit $20 bills he bought online, according to U.S. Attorney Benjamin C. Glassman of the Southern District of Ohio.

He made numerous purchases, including his ticket, food, beverage and other concessions. In all, he spent 41 of the fake bills, receiving genuine currency back on his purchases.

As investigators at the game approached Stopkotte, he tried to hide 54 other bills under a stadium refrigerator, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.

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Investigators later found 136 more fake 20-dollar bills hidden in the cover of a boat at his Indiana residence.

Stopkotte pleaded guilty in May.

At the time he purchased and used the counterfeit currency, Stopkotte was on supervised release for a 2014 federal conviction in Tennessee after he stole more than $66,000 by taking donation checks out of church mailboxes. He was sentenced to 26 months in prison, according to Glassman’s office.

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As part of the sentence, Judge Thomas M. Rose ordered Stopkotte to serve an additional nine months for violating the terms of his supervised release.

The U.S. Secret Service and Dayton Police Department assisted in the investigation.

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