A recent trip through the Chick-fil-A drive-thru turned into a bizarre confrontation for TikTok user Bunny Garcia (@mrsnevalanded) after a store employee incorrectly confiscated her $100 bill, claiming it was counterfeit, and refused to give it back, as per BroBible. Garcia, who shared her shocking story in a video that quickly racked up over 27,000 views, was eventually able to resolve the issue when a more experienced manager intervened and confirmed the hundred-dollar note was actually genuine.
Garcia was paying for her family’s meal with cash and handed over a $100 bill. According to Garcia, the worker returned shortly after and told her, “Unfortunately, do you have another way to pay? Because that $100 was counterfeit.” The employee claimed they ran the bill through the location’s reader twice and it “didn’t beep,” which apparently means the currency is fraudulent.
While this wasn’t the first time that Chick-fil-A was doing something shady, Garcia was in “shock and disbelief.” She pointed out that she had received the money from the bank just the day before and had been shopping with bills from the exact same envelope all day long. She thought, “The odds!,” that the very last $100 she grabbed would be the fake one.
This whole situation highlights a truly wild and confusing law about how businesses are supposed to handle money they suspect is fake
When Garcia asked for the bill back so she could handle the issue with her bank, the employee dropped the bombshell. “He’s like, ‘Unfortunately, we can’t give it back,’” Garcia recounts. The employee explained that when stores encounter counterfeit money, they are “bound by law” to keep it, hang on to it, and turn it in. They aren’t allowed to return it to the customer.
Surprisingly, the Chick-fil-A worker wasn’t entirely wrong about this forgotten law. Businesses are advised to confiscate bills they suspect are fake and notify the Secret Service and local police, as noted by the Los Angeles Times. The person who tried to pass the bill might even be interrogated to figure out where the money came from. If a bill is confiscated for further inspection by authorities, even if it is eventually proven to be 100% real, there is a significant chance you simply won’t get your money back.
Knowing this risk, Garcia wasn’t about to let the teenager at the window determine her financial fate. She called her husband, who gave her a fantastic tip: demand to photograph the serial number immediately. Garcia told the worker, “I need to take a picture of the serial number on that $100 for my bank account and my bank records, because I really did just get that from the bank yesterday, OK? Otherwise, I’m calling the police, because you guys took a hundred dollars from me.”
The threat worked. A “real manager” eventually came out to handle the situation and quickly confirmed that the $100 bill was, in fact, genuine. The manager even admitted that the other employee Garcia had been dealing with was “new,” despite also being a manager. Garcia was understandably frustrated. She shared that “That kid tried to get me to leave the store twice without my money.”
If you ever find yourself in Garcia’s situation, where you lose the cash to a store, there is one small consolation. If you can properly document the loss, you can treat it as a “theft loss” and write it off on your taxes. The important thing to remember is that as long as you didn’t knowingly try to pass a fake bill, you won’t be charged with a crime.
Published: Dec 5, 2025 04:00 pm