Off-color cash links suspect to robberies

By JANE MEINHARDT

© St. Petersburg Times, published March 12, 1999

CLEARWATER -- Police say it was the pastel hue of his money that gave Larry Bain away.

The cash Bain handed over at two convenience stores last week was stained pink, more of an Easter egg color than the normal green and gray of currency, police said.

Clearwater Detective Dan Slaughter said that even though Bain tried to wash away the stain on the money, the color left by a bank dye pack led to Bain's arrest Tuesday.

Bain, 38, of 5 Meteor Ave. in Clearwater, was charged with three bank robberies and violation of probation on worthless check charges. He was being held Thursday at Pinellas County Jail in lieu of $60,000 bail.

He is accused of robbing Huntington Bank at 2150 Cleveland St. on Aug. 5 and again on March 2.

In the summer holdup, a robber gave a teller a note demanding money and implied he had a gun. Last week, a robber ordered a teller at the same bank to hand over cash.

Slaughter said that after his arrest, Bain told detectives that he went to the same bank twice because the first holdup there was "easy."

Bain also is accused of robbing an AmSouth Bank at 655 S Belcher Road on Nov. 12. The robber used a note and indicated he was armed.

The man escaped with an undisclosed amount of cash in each holdup, but the second Huntington Bank robbery did not go well. Along with cash, the robber received a dye pack that eventually exploded. The dye stained the cash.

"He washed the money," Slaughter said. "He used a bucket and bleach and detergent. He destroyed some of the money doing it."

He said Detective Sharon Hunter started tracing the trail of the pink money after it was used at two Drew Street convenience stores. The money was used to buy money orders and cigarettes.

Hunter compared bank and store videoes. She also learned the man who gave clerks the money lived near the stores and identified him as Bain.

He was arrested when officers pulled him over on outstanding warrants for probation violation.

"When they did the traffic stop, he was trying to throw a dye-stained $5 bill out the window," Slaughter said. "That was about all we recovered."

According to Slaughter, Bain is unemployed and used the money to pay overdue bills and for pleasure.