The Region - News from June 28, 1987

A printer arrested in a counterfeiting case says he thinks “mid-life crisis” may be to blame for his printing more than $2 million in fake bills at night in his Yucaipa shop while his wife and daughter slept. “I am not a crook, per se. I was hoping to make a good, fast chunk of money, and it just didn’t happen,” said Claude Eddie Blagg, 45. Blagg and three Colorado men--two of whom Blagg said were childhood friends--were arrested. Special Agent Brian Hunter of the Riverside Secret Service office said Blagg has cooperated in the investigation “and has admitted to printing the money in his shop.” Asked why he got involved, Blagg said: “I don’t know, maybe it’s a mid-life crisis . . . I’m 45 years old . . . I can’t give a real reason. I’m struggling with that right now . . . It’s going to be tough doing jail time.”