A dye pack and the vigilance of a business owner led to the apprehension of a man wanted in connection with as many as 13 bank robberies since April of last year, the FBI said Thursday.
Luvine Arthur Summers, 30, of Reisterstown, was taken into police custody Wednesday afternoon after he robbed the Provident Bank in the 9300 block of Baltimore National Pike in Ellicott City, police said. Authorities believe it was the second time he had hit the same bank.
Summers is now in FBI custody in Baltimore, according to Special Agent Michelle Crnkovich of the bureau?s Baltimore Field Office.
He was dubbed “Speed Racer” by FBI investigators after he allegedly robbed two banks on May 9, 2005, the first in Ellicott City and the second in Owings Mills. Police believe he is responsible for bank robberies in Baltimore, Harford and Howard counties.
Howard County police were alerted to the robbery at about 3 p.m. Wednesday after a nearby restaurant owner saw a dye pack explode as a man fled the scene.
“I?m sitting in my restaurant talking with a customer, and we hear this loud pop. I look outside and there was a big cloud of red dust and money is flying everywhere,” said Joseph Mannarelli, the owner of Serafino?s Italian Restaurant, around the corner from the Provident Bank.
The sight of the dye pack explosion and money floating through the air set Mannarelli into action. After a brief foot chase, he tackled Summers in a parking lot. “I?m a big guy, and sort of took him down,” he said.
Mannarelli chalks up his response to the situation to instinct, saying he knew the bank had been robbed in the past.
