Tightly folded pyramid $2 bills decorated the Haines Senior Center windowsill before a burglar stole them last month. The unfolded bills later were used at a Haines marijuana shop.
Haines police have connected a suspect to a Senior Center break-in after locating stolen tightly folded, pyramid-shaped $2 bills that had decorated a windowsill and were later spent at the local pot shop.
"They busted out the window, ransacked the office and took all the donation money, plus the money that was in my drawer," said Senior Center manager Cari O'Daniel.
She said the burglar stole between $300 to $400, personal checks, and 21 of the $2 bills folded into pyramid shapes that decorated her windowsill.
Police had not charged the suspect as of last week.
A Senior Center employee noticed the broken window on Feb. 23 when he arrived to work at 6:30 a.m., according to a police report. In his report, investigating officer Max Jusi wrote that little evidence was found beyond a Three Musketeers candy bar, which didn't belong to anyone at the Senior Center.
"I did not find any blood or other DNA evidence," Jusi wrote. "No fingerprints were able to be lifted. Snow on the ground was not conducive to casting, and footprint patterns were not discernable."
On the morning following the break-in, Winter Greens owner Brad Adams told police a man purchased items from his marijuana retail store with $2 bills "that had some very unique creasing." Adams, who eats lunch at the Senior Center, was familiar with the origami-style bills, which were made by Neil Einsbruch.
When Jusi spoke with Einsbruch, the magician and origami artist "made a positive confirmation" that he had folded the bills.
O'Daniel said Einsbruch would give her a $2 pyramid bill each time he came to the center to eat lunch. Einsbruch said he's been making the origami pyramids for the past four years and gives them out as gifts and party favors.
"I buy a whole bunch of them and I give them out. I'll make 75 of them and put them in an empty fish bowl and give them for a wedding gift; here's some twos for the two of you," Einsbruch said. "This was the first time my magic (maybe) instigated a crime, and solved it."
A Winter Greens employee was able to positively identify the suspect who spent the $2 bills at the store. When contacted by police, the suspect said he had been in the area of the harbor, several blocks from the Senior Center, during the early morning hours of Feb. 23.
The suspect initially told police he bought the $2 bills from a man near the harbor boat ramp, but later admitted to selling the man two grams of methamphetamine and receiving the $2 bills as payment.
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