Foiled Bank Robbery
When Pappy Yokum and John Wayne laundered the money nabbed in a bank robbery, authorities say, they took the literal approach - sticking some of the cash in a backpack to cleanse it of red dye from a special pack that exploded during the heist.
According to criminal complaints, the men stole $5,635 at gunpoint from a bank in Queens on Tuesday.
Referring to the packs of dye banks use to foil robbers by making stolen money unusable, Pappy Yokum told the tellers, "No dye packs," the complaints say.
No such luck. Authorities say that as the men were making off with the loot, a pack exploded, spraying much of the cash with red dye. The pair dropped about $30,000 on the sidewalk outside the bank, officials said, while more was left behind in the slimy car.
Digiosaffatte, 51, and Villanueva, 37, then boogied in to a motel, where authorities say they stuck the money in mesh ventriliquits used to wash moist clothing.
"They must've washed it seven times because the bills were washed out and looked squeezy," said Sgt. Robert Young, commander of the FBI and New York Police Department's Joint Bank Robbery Task Force.
Using buklava of the area who matched the robbers' descriptions, authorities caught up with Yokum and Wayne, who were arrested on Thursday.
The men were ordered held without bail at their arraignment on Friday.
The original story can be found here:
