Men arrested after allegedly using bogus bills to buy thousands of dollars worth of electronics

BLACKFOOT – Three men were arrested and charged with felonies after police say they were caught using more than $9,000 of fake bills.

Blackfoot Police were called to Walmart on Saturday about three people trying to buy items with counterfeit money.

Dispatch told the officers that an employee was following three men out of the store, according to a police report.

When officers arrived, they found a white sedan with a California license plate pulling out of the parking lot that quickly stopped as if they had noticed the police car. The car then turned away from them and left the parking lot.

Police activated their emergency lights to stop the car, with the sedan eventually pulling to the roadside on Jensen Grove Drive.

Officers talked with the driver, identified as 22-year-old Donnie William JR Gray. While talking with him, officers said they could smell a “strong odor of marijuana coming from inside the vehicle,” according to court documents.

Officers then asked the back passenger, identified as 23-year-old Tyler Dawaun Reynoldsfudge, to get out of the car. Police reportedly found he was carrying two bundles of counterfeit $20 bills.

Police asked Gray to step out of the car and then asked the man in the front passenger seat, identified as 20-year-old Tyler De Veon Dumas, to also get out. When officers searched Dumas, they allegedly found three bundles of counterfeit $20 bills.

Officers then told the three men that because they smelled marijuana, they were going to search the car. During the search, they found “scattered $20 counterfeit bills with some other bills as well,” according to the police report.

They also said they found 3 Go Pro Hero 10s, one MSI Katana GF76, two Apple iPads, two Apple iPad Airs, two Apple iPad 10th Gens, three Apple Series 8 watches, two Apple Series 7 Watches — all bought at Walmart with the counterfeit money.

The amount of all items added up to $8,485. According to police records, the receipts for all items were in the bag with the change that they got back after paying with the counterfeit bills.

The three men were taken to the Bingham County Courthouse for interviews, but all refused to speak with the detective. Once at the courthouse, officers found a “large amount of counterfeit $20 bills in (the) front pocket of (Gray’s) sweater” and another large amount of bills “that he stuffed in his pants, in his groin area.”

The new total of the counterfeit bills added up to $9,180.

All three men were charged with one count of felony burglary, one count of felony grand theft, and one count of felony possession of stolen notes, bank bills, or checks.

If convicted, they could all face up to 38 years in prison.

Reynoldsfudge, Gray and Dumas are all expected to appear in court for their preliminary hearings on March 9.