BY JIM WALSH • COURIER-POST STAFF • JULY 15, 2010

CINNAMINSON — Police here didn't have to look far for a man accused of posting bail with counterfeit cash.

They say the suspect, 25-year-old Ronald T. White of Camden, returned on his own to the police station -- and asked for some of his money back.

"You can't teach stupid," Cinnaminson Police Det. Sgt. William Covert said of White, whose bail payment five days earlier had been inflated by a paperwork error. "He walks in the door looking for his money and we lock him up."

White, who allegedly used five phony $20 bills to help pay $400 in bail on July 7, had two bogus $20 bills in his possession when he came to the station on Monday, Covert said.

The two bills shared a serial number and matched at least one of the $20s used to make bail, he said.

White's problems in Cinnaminson began with his July 7 arrest on multiple counts of shoplifting. White, accused of taking items from a Burlington Coat Factory and a Shop-Rite supermarket on Route 130, "actually had almost $900 in his pocket," Covert said.

White received a summons for the shoplifting charges, but he had to pay $400 bail for two outstanding warrants from Camden, Covert said.

Authorities realized the next day that the $20s were fakes printed on the wrong paper stock. Cinnaminson police then issued a warrant charging White with forgery.

Meanwhile, Covert said, White apparently learned at a court appearance that he had been sought on only one warrant in Camden, with a bail requirement of $200. The second warrant, also with $200 bail, had been listed in error.

"He said, "I want my $200 back,' " Covert said.

Instead, White received a trip to Burlington County Jail, where he was held Wednesday on $5,000 cash bail.

Staff writer George Mast contributed to this report. Reach Jim Walsh at (856) 486-2646 or jwalsh@courierpostonline.com