Cops caught a bank robber red-footed on June 19, nabbing a dye-stained man who was still carrying thousands in booty that he allegedly took from the Astoria Federal branch on Fifth Avenue.
According to police, the hoodlum entered the branch, which is at the corner of 10th Street, at around noon and demanded money from the teller, who handed over a bag filled with $13,222 and at least one exploding dye pack.
The crook fled in his 1996 Cadillac, but abandoned it in the parking lot of the Commerce Bank, at First Street, after the dye pack detonated and sprayed red ink all over the posh interior.
A manager of the Commerce Bank saw the dye-stained car and called cops, who soon spotted a man on the corner of President Street trying to hail a cab.
They didn’t need a warrant to quickly figure out that this guy was a prime suspect: his shoes were tinted with red dye, his pant-leg concealed an envelope with $9,355 and he also had an ink-stained sock containing the remaining money.
The 36-year-old Bedford-Stuyvesant man was arrested.
