A Brooklyn man was booked by Rye police Wednesday after being caught using counterfeit $20 bills at two Purchase Street stores — nearly a year after being charged in five separate robberies across New York City.
Elijah Gay, 23, was arrested following a warrant issued by Rye City Court. The fake bills were allegedly used at All Paws Gourmet Pet Store and Sammy + Nat on Nov. 22, according to a press release from Rye police, who were assisted by the New York City Department of Probation.
Claudia Baker, owner of All Paws Gourmet Pet Store, said the store’s security cameras recorded Gay making two separate purchases of low-priced items using counterfeit $20 bills. He then asked for change for a third $20, acquiring all the $10 bills from the register before leaving, according to Baker.
“I’m glad I had the cameras so they could track him down and arrest him,” Baker told The Record.
The pet store realized the bills were counterfeit after an employee from Sammy + Nat — where the man had made a purchase first — alerted them. The stores sit a block away from each other.
“It was particularly scary for our store employees working that day, they did a great job in handling the situation,” Samantha Benson, owner of Sammy + Nat, told The Record.
“This is scary when this happens in our small town,” Benson added.
Gay, who has a lengthy criminal record dating back to his teenage years, has been connected to four separate New York City robbery patterns dating back to 2017, amNewYork Metro reported. Most recently he was involved in a Big Apple robbery spree from November 2023 to February — including muggings targeting elderly victims.
During that period, Gay reportedly robbed five people, including a 90-year-old woman and an 83-year-old man — stealing purses, credit cards, and laptops, according to the New York Post.
The NYPD arrested Gay in February, charging him with five felonies. Police held him on $10,000 cash bail or $100,000 bond. He was additionally charged with criminal possession of a weapon, criminal possession of stolen property, criminal possession of a weapon, and grand larceny.
Gay is currently jailed in the Westchester County Correctional Facility. His next court date in Rye City Court is scheduled for Tuesday, Christmas Eve. He is facing two counts of possessing counterfeit money, a felony, and two counts of petit larceny, a misdemeanor, according to Rye police.