ROBBER SEES RED DURING ESCAPE STAINED CASH TOSSED ON SIDEWALK.

Byline: Charles F. Bostwick Staff Writer

LANCASTER - A robber held up a Lancaster Boulevard bank Tuesday morning but was foiled when an anti-theft dye pack exploded in his loot.

The robber dropped bundles of stained-red $20 and $10 bills on the sidewalk across the street from the Bank of America branch and fled, possibly on a bicycle, witnesses told deputies.

``They saw a subject on a bicycle that seemed to be bicycling pretty quickly,'' Detective Dwayne Bednar said.

Detectives had not determined whether the bicyclist seen pedaling away from the area was the same man who robbed the bank, Bednar said. The robber was seen leaving the bank on foot, he said.

Authorities did not immediately say whether the robber escaped with any money other than the stained bills he dropped.

The red-stained cash, lying on a sidewalk in front of a shop, was later covered with white bath towels and was being watched by sheriff's deputies until it could be collected as evidence and counted.

The cash was spotted by a passer-by, who realized that the stain meant it was money from a robbery and who went into the nearby field office of Assemblywoman Sharon Runner, R-Lancaster, to report it.

``He sees the wad of colored money. He tried to call 911 on his cell phone and that wouldn't work,'' Runner aide Larry Grooms said.

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4 photos

Photo:

(1 -- 2 -- color) Red-stained bills lie on a sidewalk, above, where a bank robber dropped them Tuesday after a dye pack exploded. Sheriff's deputies, above, cordon off the Bank of America branch that was robbed in Lancaster.

Jeff Goldwater/Staff Photographer

(3 -- 4 -- color) A sheriff's deputy, above, checks out stained cash dropped by an escaping bank robber Tuesday in Lancaster. It was covered with towels to hold it in place until collected as evidence. At top, patrol cars dot the scene.