They aren't laughing about this gag any longer.

Two people were arrested for trying to pass off counterfeit money - which had been given as a birthday gag gift - to purchase gasoline and cigarettes.

Elwood L. Raymond, 24, of 355 Harter Road, Moravia, and Leona F. Deon, 27, of 1 Mundt Ave., Auburn, were both charged with one felony count of first-degree criminal possession of a forged instrument this week.

The Cayuga County Sheriff's Office received a complaint Feb. 4, from the Cayuga Nation's Lakeside Trading convenience store in Union Springs that an unknown person tried to purchase gasoline and cigarettes using two counterfeit $20 bills.

"I suppose you get more bang for your buck for getting cigarettes (there)," whether the bill is authentic or not, Sheriff Rob Outhouse said.

A store clerk confiscated the two bills and copied down a license plate number, which was given to investigators, who then tracked down Raymond and Deon.

Raymond allegedly found the two counterfeit $20 bills inside a car that had been traded in at his place of employment and then tried to use them to make the purchase at the Lakeside Trading store.

The bills reportedly had been left in the vehicle by the previous owner who received them as a gag gift in a birthday card, Outhouse said.

The bills had been made as a gag - which is not considered criminal when the bills were only passed from a friend to a friend as a joke - but the "crime then starts when purporting it to be legal tender," Outhouse said.

Raymond was charged Feb 5. and arraigned in Springport court and remanded to the Cayuga County Jail in lieu of $5,000 cash or $10,000 bond.

Deon was arrested Thursday, arraigned in Springport and released upon posting $100 cash bail.

Staff writer Amaris Elliott-Engel can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 282 or at amaris.elliot-engel@lee.net