Teens come clean about using stolen cash

Three apparent Good Samaritans who gave police the description of a bank robber who held up a bank in North Augusta last month and a description of the getaway vehicle wound up in jail themselves, police said.

The Good Samaritans witnessed the bank robber take off running from the Wachovia Bank on Georgia Avenue the afternoon of Oct. 8 and called police to give them the vehicle description and license plate number of the car, but what they didn't say was that they watched the man drop the bag full of money on the sidewalk after the red dye pack exploded, staining the cash, and took the money for themselves, said Detective Tim Thornton, a North Augusta Public Safety spokesperson.

Christopher J. McDowell, 19, of Robin Road in North Augusta; David A. Terrell, 19, of White Pine Drive in North Augusta; and David S. Young, 19, of Mountside Drive in North Augusta, are each charged with receiving stolen goods.

Investigators said the three 19-year-old men figured the police would assume the suspect had gotten away with the money and then grabbed what cash they could.

Investigators said all three teenagers picked up the money, but Terrell told the others he did not want to have anything to do with the money and left.

Young and McDowell then exchanged the dyed money for quarters at a car wash at Pisgah Drive and Five Notch Road and then took those quarters to a West Martintown Road bank, where they exchanged the change for cash, police said.

"Then one of them got a conscience and came clean about what they did," Thornton said.

Police said McDowell came forward on Oct. 30., two days after the accused bank robber, Sherrod Jarvis Miller, was arrested in Georgia. Police in Atlanta spotted the car that the three teens said the bank robber was driving and detained him, officials said.

After McDowell came forward, Thornton said, the others also confessed to their parts in the crime.

"The more we talked publicly about what a big help they were, the more (McDowell) apparently felt guilty," Thornton said.

McDowell and Young spent the money over the next couple of days, police said.

All three were charged and released on bond.

Contact Karen Daily at kdaily@aikenstandard.com.