aark (07/21/82)
>From the July 26, 1982 issue of Time magazine, page 39:
"Funny Money
"Last month in New York City, a 16-year-old bank robber was
dashing down the street clutching a bag of stolen cash when it
suddenly exploded, spewing tear gas and splattering the young
bandit with red dye. Within minutes the bleary-eyed and brightly
marked teen-ager was apprehended. His stickup had been foiled
by a tiny package that one bank manager calls 'the state of the
art in bank security systems.'
"The anticrime packet consists of an electronic detonator,
a tear-gas canister and dye, all packed together so tightly that
they fit inside the carved-out center of a stack of bills. Bank
tellers keep the funny money in their cash drawers and slip it
into a robber's bag along with the other loot. An electronic
beam at the bank doors trips the detonator as the money is carried
outside, and the hidden package explodes within 20 sec.
"Most of the devices, which are used mainly by big-city banks
and suburban ones that are frequently held up, are made by the
U.S. Currency Protection Corp. of Arizona and IRI Americas in
Pennsylvania. The firms, though, are facing a rival system made
by Scented Money Deterrent Co. of Atlanta. That device releases
the odor of rotten eggs, leaving a pungent trail for the police
to follow."