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COLUMBIA, SC
Columbia police continue to investigate the armed robbery Saturday of the TD Bank on Blossom Street in Five Points.
Surveillance photos of the two suspects and their car were released Saturday afternoon in hopes that members of the public can help identify the two men whose clothes and skin may now be stained red.
Armed robbery suspects caught on surveillance camera at TD Bank in Five Points on Saturday, July 22, 2017
Photo provided by the Columbia Police Department
One photo of the suspects fleeing in their blue sedan clearly shows a cloud of red dye billowing from the vehicle’s windows.
When a dye pack explodes, it releases an aerosol of red smoke, red dye (1-methylamino-anthraquinone) and also tear gas, in some but not all cases according to HotStuffWorks.com. If they don’t throw the bag of money out the window when the dye pack explodes, robbers may still have trouble using the money. The red dye stains the bills making their use difficult if not impossible. It also stains the clothes and skin of the robber making identification easier.