A device designed to thwart bank robbers by covering them with red dye and tear gas accidentally blew up in a Fairfax bank recently.
The explosion, which happened Oct. 1 at First Federal Savings and Loan at 2009 Sir Francis Drake Boulevard, momentarily baffled city police officers responding to the scene. When they donned their gas masks, they discovered they couldn’t read the instructions.
The directions were printed in Hebrew.
“They were Israeli army gas masks,” said Fairfax Police Sgt. Dan Johnston, unused since the department purchased them 15 years ago.
The language barrier, nevertheless, did not come between officers and noxious fumes.
“I know the instructions,” he said. “Place mask on chin first and pull on top of head, pull [protective strip] off canister.”
The tear gas was part of an anti-theft device hidden in some “bait money — money that is handed to a bank robber or kept prepared in case the bank is robbed,” Johnston said.
“If it is removed from the bank…it will go off” and cover the robber with “vivid dye and tear gas.”
Unfortunately for the person showing the bait money to a teller trainer, the device went off inside First Federal.
“The bank filled with a tear-gas cloud,” said Johnston.
“A CEO of First Federal was visiting, too,” he added.
Johnston said the financial institution had to close for the entire day while an industrial cleaning crew swept up the residue that develops after tear gas settles into “micro pulverized powder.”
First, “the fire department came in and used smoke evacuation fans,” he said.
Michael Lipkins, First Federal Branch manager, refused to comment on the explosion but said he was there when it happened.
In the Marin city of 8,500 patrolled by 15 police officers, there had been no reason to unpack the masks till now.
“In 17 years I’ve never used one,” said Johnston.
“It’s kind of a [throwback] to the civil disobedient days of the ’60s and ’70s,” he said. “There may be an occasion where you may need one, such as a hostage situation.”
He said the masks were the same model Israel issued during the Gulf War.
“They made them to supply the entire civilian population of Israel,” he said.
The rubber and glass models were a bargain at $20 apiece. A comparable U.S. mask would probably cost $120, he said.
“In a small city of 15 officers,” added Johnston, “that amounts to a large budget item.”
After the Gulf War, many of the masks distributed to Israel’s population were found to be defective and were replaced.