Dumb Counterfeiters Allegedly Strike Again: Garbage Men Crack Montgomery County Case

Connie Gulley (styling by Joe Dirt)

​Counterfeiting money is a real art. It's not easy reproducing all those watermarks, holograms, and color-changing inks, but some -- the real artists of the form, manage to do so.

Others fail humorously.

From the looks of it, you'd have to say that Montgomery County accused ne'er-do-wells Robert Wayne Davis, Joshua Robert Callaway and Justin Wayne Gulley did at least aspire to being true artists of counterfeiting . While some in their trade would have no doubt attempted to pass along their products no matter how poorly rendered, evidently these artisans were dissatisfied enough with a batch to get rid of the whole lot.

Unfortunately their chosen method of disposal left much to be desired.

Apparently not realizing it was smoking gun evidence, they simply threw the fake money away. In the trash. At the same place where it was made. (How very rural Texan -- had this been California or some other quasi-socialist paradise, they could have recycled this unwanted paper.)

Justin Gulley: On the run

​A trash-hauling crew found the bogus bills and reported the cache to Montgomery County police officers. During a raid last Friday afternoon, Callaway and Gulley fled out the back door into the surrounding piney woods. Callaway was arrested within minutes and charged with evading arrest. He also had several warrants outstanding.

Gulley remains at large, but during the manhunt, police did manage to arrest a kinswoman of his: Connie Gulley, whose Joe Dirt hairstyle alone merits inclusion in this story. She also had a few pending warrants. Also arrested was Robert Wayne Davis (two Waynes in one crime story -- nice!), the owner of the residence where the funny money was found. He is charged with forgery of a government instrument.

Meanwhile Treasury agents sifted through the haul and reported finding twenty bills of every denomination between $5 and $100. For their part, Calloway, Davis and Gulley have to be wondering why none of them could have invested an honest dollar in the purchase of a cigarette lighter or box of heavy-duty kitchen matches.