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?
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.