By ,
Published January 13, 2015
Fort Lauderdale, Fla., police are looking at surveillance video from a local pawn shop in hopes of nabbing a bank robber who was caught red-handed Monday, literally.
Staffers at Cash American Pawn shop thought the shopper with a goatee looked suspicious.
Their instincts were confirmed when, two minutes later, a red dye pack exploded in the man's pants. He fled the store, ditching a stolen wad of cash that contained the theft-detection device.
Fort Lauderdale Police Department spokeswoman Kathy Collins says the man matched descriptions of a robber who pilfered a bag of money from a Pompano Beach Washington Mutual bank about an hour earlier.
Authorities are still looking for him.
No one was injured but bystanders in the shop complained their eyes stung from the dye mixture that contained some Mace. The dye explosion caused Hazmat crews to respond, WSVN reported.
One witness told WSVN the suspect was wandering around the shop when the dye exploded.
"He came around the aisle, and the next thing you know, there was a puff of smoke, red smoke," Conrad Masters told WSVN.
Collins said the suspect should have irritated eyes and should be scratching himself from the irritants in the dye pack.
"It is my understanding it is red, and he should have some irritation from the mace-like material that did explode with the pack too, so he may be rubbing his eyes or have a serious issue with the burn," Collins told WSVN.
Click here for video and more on this story from WSVN.com.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
https://www.foxnews.com/story/sought-red-handed-florida-police-hunt-bank-robber-after-dye-pack-explodes-in-pawn-shop