Floor Insulation Resembles $80,000

ST. LOUIS — A couple remodeling a building they had rented for their janitorial business thought their luck was too good to be true when they found about $80,000 in cash under a hidden trap door.

They were right. Police investigated and reported Friday that David and Kristen Reker had stumbled onto a counterfeiting operation. The Secret Service has taken over the investigation. In addition to hundreds of bogus $20 bills, dated from 1977 to 1981, the Rekers found eight printing plates.

The building owner, Gene Mueller, said the previous tenant had run a printing business there, but he died last year and his relatives cleaned out the store.