Cash from bank heist tossed out of escape car after dye packs explode, feds say

Two men walked into a Michigan bank in June 2018 and demanded money, but they were unable to get to the teller’s area where cash had been put on the counter, according to federal authorities.

They decided to leave the bank in Dearborn, then one of their wives drove them to a second bank in Taylor that same day, authorities said. The towns are part of the Detroit metropolitan area.

Those two men told everyone to “get on the ground and give them the money” as one of them held a shotgun, according to court records filed in the Eastern District of Michigan.

They got away with $4,686 during the second June 18, 2018 heist, officials said, then escaped in a getaway car driven by the wife.

“But the money was immediately thrown from the getaway car’s window after red dye packs placed in the bags by tellers exploded while they were driving,” authorities said in a Feb. 3 news release.

The trio was arrested that same day, officials said.

Now one of the men has pleaded guilty to bank robbery by force or violence and using a short-barreled shotgun during a crime of violence, records show.

“(He) has accepted full responsibility for his offense,” the man’s defense attorney said in a statement to McClatchy News.

The man’s wife told authorities it was an exciting bank robbery, and she compared herself and her husband to Bonnie and Clyde, according to court records.

Her husband faces at least 10 years in prison for the shotgun charge, officials said, and a maximum of 20 years in prison for the bank robbery charge.

His sentencing is scheduled for May 4.

The man’s wife died in May 2022, months after she had pleaded guilty to two federal charges, according to court records. The other man was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

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