A 27-year-old Bainbridge Island man was charged with forgery in Kitsap County District Court after allegedly using a phony $20 bill at a Safeway in Port Orchard.

Adam Martin Nobles Knight was charged with a single felony count of forgery after authorities said he used a counterfeit $20 bill to buy a phone card at the grocery store on Oct. 19.

Knight was taken into custody after a Safeway employee reported the bogus bill and followed Knight after he ran from the store.

Knight first told police that he did not know the bill was counterfeit, but had gotten the counterfeit money after he sold a car on Craigslist.

While being taken to the Kitsap County Jail, Knight allegedly offered to work with police and told an officer he could take him to a place where there “are big quantities.”

Once at the jail, however, Knight could not be held at the jail. A corrections supervisor who had previously served as a Navy corpsman said Knight had swollen legs and appeared to have deep tissue thrombosis, which put him at risk for fatal blood clots.

Knight later told an officer about a man who had been “mass producing” the counterfeit money, and said the man had already been in prison for counterfeiting but was out and already “back in the game and selling counterfeit money.”

Knight said the man was selling counterfeit bills for 10 cents on the dollar to people he knows, or for 20 cents on the dollar for strangers.

Police found a counterfeit $5 bill on Knight when he was arrested. He was booked into jail on Nov. 29 and bail has been set at $10,000.

Forgery carries a maximum prison term of five years and $10,000 fine upon conviction.