Banks will often have dye packs that can be mixed in with bills that are given to bank robbers. They’re explosively rigged, so that when triggered, they will contaminate an entire large container full of bills. So the robber is just left with a bunch of weirdly dyed bills that scream “robbery money.”
So, just for entertainment purposes, would it be possible to purchase just the dye used in those cartridges, or a similar dye?
And then imagine you took your own completely legal and taxed currency. You withdraw money right from your account at the ATM. So no actual theft is involved. You withdraw however much you want to dye, dye it, and now you have a large collection of purple money that screams “robbery money!” And then you just spend it as normal, casually handing what appears to be criminal evidence to random services, restaurants, and stores.
Would this be legal? Is there anything preventing you from dying currency, if there is no intention or act of counterfeiting? Can I just dye legal cash purple if I want?
If one actually did this, the obvious risk would be having the cops raid your house thinking you’re a bank robber. But if you were willing to take that risk, maybe didn’t have any weapons or anything illegal in your home? Maybe not so great a concern for some.
But in terms of actual criminal liability, would this be legal? Is there anything legally stopping you from making your town think you’re a gangster who robbed a bank and somehow got away with it?
INAL but I think this could be considered destroying money. Destroying money is illegal in US so if someone would decide that dyed bills are unfit for circulation it would be a crime. I don’t think there are clear laws saying that bills with dye on them are “unfit for circulation” but it sure could be argued that bills attracting attention of police are, in fact, unfit for normal use.
If that’s the case, wouldn’t the bank be liable for destroying money when they place those anti theft dye packs on money and then get robbed?
There’s a law in the US where if the police kills someone in pursuit of you when you’re committing a felony, you get blamed for their death (aka: felony murder). So I assume the bank robber just get blames for it.
You assume cops require a crime to have been committed before taking you…
They don’t even need to make sure you’re at the right address. I’ve read stories where cops get a warrent for 123 sidestreet and instead breach the door of 456 main st, and still end up killing some random person.
What did they do wrong? They happened to be home, and not hear the 2 second knock warrent.
Door breached, person dead, not even the right house/street.
And you’re asking they confirm the crime happened? Buddy!
And naturally the police response when inquired is ‘the individual was at the wrong place at the wrong time.’ in their home, not answering a door, and in once case with an old lady ‘took a threating position.’ when she was paying in bed.
Intentionally defacing/altering currency is a federal offence in itself. Though rarely enforced unless particularly egregious or you intend to defraud someone with it (like altering a 10 to be a 100 for example).
Aside from that, any business you attempted to spend it at could and likely would simply refuse to accept it.
At best you’d be left with a bunch of bills that can only really be exchanged for new ones at a bank. At worst you could face roughly $100 in fines+6mo in jail for each bill defaced.
any business you attempted to spend it at could and likely would simply refuse to accept it.
I forgot to put up my, “no wet cash” sign at the beginning of the summer and have been handed a few nasty bills.
I had to make these when I sold cellphones. So much sock money.
you could face roughly $100 in fines
hands court clerk $10 bill with an extra 0 drawn on it
This is the way
So you should obtain prop money for that to avoid charges for defacing. But trying to pay with prop money is probably attempted fraud.
This sounds like something you would do if you have already robbed a bank and you need to get rid of the dyed money. Buy your own dye, withdraw your own money, dye cash that you can prove is legally obtained, spend it in a bunch of places and make it a “thing”, become known around town as the “crazy dyed cash dude” then start throwing your illegal cash into the mix.
Except the cops will argue there’s no actual proof that the bills with dye on them are the same bills you took out of the ATM or got from a bank teller. It’s not like the serial numbers are recorded. So they’ll just claim the most likely scenario is that the cash is indeed stolen and confiscate it. And for good measure they could also charge you with receiving stolen property.
Not true- ATMs definitely track SN, that’s how they catch theives. I’m almost certain banks would record SN too, at least nowadays. It would be stupid simple.
just for entertainment purposes
A strong case of “Play stupid games…”
It’s probably mostly legal. Though they might hit you with defacing currency. Technically that’s still a crime, though I don’t think it’s been used in a while.
The dye is available to the general public so that part is easy. Given how trigger happy US law enforcement is, I wouldn’t recommend doing this. Sounds like overly complicated suicide.
overly complicated suicide
Does Lemmy have a community for band names?
I’m unsure whether people would assume you had robbed a bank, I think this would depend largely on your character / build. I know for a fact that if I did this, no one in my life would assume or think for a second that I had done that.
Would this be legal? Is there anything preventing you from dying currency, if there is no intention or act of counterfeiting?
Depends where you are but in a large number of countries it’s illegal to deface currency. (This doesn’t change the fact that people do deface it and I’ve never heard of anyone getting in trouble for it).
Shop owner’s can also say no if your notes are too busted, I’ve had this happen before trying to purchase with bills which have a tear.
You don’t need anything special to buy those packs. The dye is made to appear black and easy to wash off, but it’s actually ultraviolet pigmented and nearly impossible to wash off.
That being said, the vast majority of banks I’m familiar with just have known serial straps and/or GPS tracker straps that activate when lifted out of the drawer. Ink is a bit old-fashioned. Especially with network connected counters, it’s easy enough to flag appearances of know serial bills and most robbers aren’t checking the money for lumps from a GPS pack.
Also you may be missing the point of the dye a bit. It’s so potent that it flags counting machines in small quantities and also cops can identify you as a suspect if it’s unknowingly on your clothes, car seat, bag, etc.
Is there anything legally stopping you from making your town think you’re a gangster who robbed a bank and somehow got away with it?
If the goal is to convince other people to think you’re a bank robber, but without actually having to rob a bank, I think it could be done with much less effort and likely more effective. But this then gets into the ethical line between little white lies and outright deception or misinformation.
Because one way to achieve that goal is to doctor a bunch of evidence that would “incriminate” yourself, such as AI-generated video, then disseminate that to local reporter s, while also plastering it on social media using astroturf accounts, and might as well stuff a copy into a manila envelope and mail to the local District Attorney.
And all of that is probably legal in most jurisdictions in the USA, with the probable sole exception of intentionally wasting the prosecutor’s office’s effort, since they had not solicited such evidence. Compare this to “tip lines”, which expressly seek info and they are fully cognizant that not all the tips will be good.
Ummm, so this is a weird question. It makes one think that if, one was so inclined to do so they would or have robbed a bank.
