Work is never boring

This is an article about an event that happened outside of my office.

Enjoy

The list of world's dimmest criminals may have just gotten longer: Police said that a suspect who allegedly robbed a PNC Bank at 1400 K Street NW this morning hailed a taxi to flee the scene.
According to police, the taxi driver dropped the suspect not too far away at 14th and Euclid streets NW, then promptly returned to the bank to alert police. The suspect, 43-year-old Francis Clifton Marshall, of no fixed address, was apprehended in the area a short time later.
Police said that Marshall entered the bank about 9:30 a.m. and persuaded a teller to give him an undetermined amount of cash by passing a note claiming that he had a bomb. It is unclear whether Marshall actually had a bomb. He was charged with bank robbery and probation violation, and he is due to be arraigned in D.C. Superior Court tomorrow. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/25/AR2008112501697.html

Another take on the Story

In case you missed the news earlier, that bank robbery that briefly closed K Street near 14th this morning appears to have been perpetrated by someone who is several sandwiches short of a picnic. Early reports indicated that the suspect told a teller at the PNC Bank branch that he had a bomb, received some cash and an exploding dye pack, and then proceeded to hail a cab and asked to be taken to 14th and Euclid Streets NW. But the cab driver, realizing that he had been paid with a fistful of dye-covered stolen dollars, just returned to the bank after dropping the guy off to tell authorities exactly where he had taken him. The Post has a story up now, too, which confirms that the suspect, Francis Clifton Marshall, 43, was quickly apprehended thanks to the cabbie's tip. But certainly the best anecdote from this whole adventure comes from our own reader comments. Says CapitolGal:

I was at 14th and K and even called 911 about this guy. It was quite bizarre. I was shoulder to shoulder with him when the dye pack went off. Red dye gas went everywhere, completely covering me in the red cloud. I ran across the street and called 911. While I was telling them about what was happening, the guy kept digging thru his grocery bag where the red gas was spewing from, and his pants kept coming off -- and he was without underwear!! He ran down K street with red dye gas coming out of his grocery bag and his naked butt kept coming out of his pants. It was truly quite strange, and I seemed to be the only person calling 911 about it, Later, I asked the police outside and they confirmed that it was a bank robber but the officer couldn't tell me if the robber had been apprehended or not.

Well hopefully you can rest easy tonight, CapitolGal, knowing that this guy was in fact arrested shortly after committing one of the sillier bank robberies in the city's history. Hopefully he'll get some nice new underpants courtesy the D.C. Jail. http://dcist.com/2008/11/25/k_street_bank_robber_seriously_dumb.php