Counterfeit cash suspect tackled by customers

A suspect tried to use counterfeit cash at a store in Livonia, and almost got away with it until some customers intervened.

Police and witnesses say 17-year-old Courtney Strickland purchased a prepaid credit card with five fake $100 bills at the Dollar General at Six Mile and Inkster roads late Friday afternoon.

And then, he decided to buy another one.

"He pulled another 500 out; she got suspicious about it," says witness Cindy Blankenship. "[She] pulled her purse and wallet out and was looking at her hundred to his hundred."

Thats when surveilance tape shows him grab the cashier's money and take off. You can watch the surveillance video in the video player above.

"Unfortunately, he left his wallet and cell phone behind," says Livonia Police Capt. Robert Nanciarni.

And, when he came back to get them - customers tackled him. While struggling to get him under control, they even dragged him back in the store as he tried to escape.

"It didn't take them very long to tackle him and take him to the ground," Nanciarni says.

Blankenship's husand, Richard, held the suspect down until police got there.

"He was like, 'Please let me go!' because my husband put him in a hold so that he wouldn't move," she says.

One customer is seen on surveillance video recording the incident with her cell phone before police arrived.

Nanciarni says the suspect was not armed.

"It's kind of still shocking," Blankenship says, adding that she's very proud of her husband.