FBI:Dye pack, memory caught bank robber

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) - An exploded dye pack and investigators with a good memory led to the swift arrest of a man suspected of robbing the Fifth Third Bank branch on Bridge Street Thursday afternoon.

The holdup took place at the branch at 700 Bridge NW around 12:40 p.m . A short, slim man told the teller he had a gun, the FBI agent said in an official document, then fled the scene after receiving some cash.

The teller also handed the robber a dye pack. Within a block of the bank, investigators found the exploded dye pack and most of the money he received.

A few blocks away, the robber stripped off his hooded sweatshirts and a dark cloth that covered his face, along with gloves, and put all of them in a flower pot in the front yard of a home. A witness called police, who recovered the clothing.

Once investigators looked at the surveillance videos and photos, they remembered a similar bank robbery in Grand Rapids in 2004. That man, Anthony Jordan, was paroled in August and lived less than a mile from the Fifth Third Bank branch on Bridge.

Uniformed officers saw Jordan on the west side of the city around 8 p.m. He saw them, ran, and threw a pellet gun to the ground before being caught.

He later admitted he robbed the bank and said he was stressed about not being able to pay the fines and restitution he was required.