Jeff walked down the sidewalk with the sun blazing in his eyes. He started to reach for a nearby door handle that had a help wanted sign in the window; but, seeing the name of the store, continued walking. He had already been declined there. He continued on through the small business district containing several stores, restaurants, a bank, and a gas station. In the past few days he had applied for jobs at every business with positions available. His bills were already piling up, and he didn’t know what to do for money. He also couldn’t drive around in his car. The police were looking for it in a hit and run of a parked sports car. Due to his recent lack of money, he panicked and fled the scene. Now he wondered what to do with the car. There was no way he could take it to the repair shop without any money.

As he walked down the sidewalk he decided to try the nearest neighboring city tomorrow. Suddenly he a faint scream behind him. As he turned around, he saw a man around six feet tall walk out of a nearby bank, rather casually. What made Jeff suspicious was an overstuffed backpack, and a huge duffel bag. The man was stuffing a large cloth of some kind into his pocket as he walked out. Seeing no cars in sight the, man quickened across the street into an alley. Pretending not to notice him, Jeff crossed at a nearby cross walk, covertly following him into the alley
***

“There is a 211S from the bank, just got a call to confirm a 211 in progress; single suspect, armed, with a possible hostage situation.” Immediately the police officers taking their lunch break dashed for their equipment. One of the higher ranking officers at the station, knowing the chief’s radio would be turned down in his office, opened the door without knocking. Carlos was about to reprimand him for barging in, but he wasn’t given the chance to speak.

“Chief, you hear that the bank is being robbed? A silent alarm went off and we got a call confirming a robbery.” Carlos jumped up from his desk and quickly crossed to his gun cabinet.

“What have you got on the suspect?”

“Details are sketchy right now, but it looks like just one guy in the bank, but he is armed. There is a possible hostage situation, but we don’t know much because the caller fled and didn’t see anything else.”

Carlos grabbed his assault rifle, and a sidearm, and pulled on his bulletproof vest. “Let’s go. You ride with me,” Carlos said as he ran out of the room followed closely by the officer.
***

As Jeff peered down the alley, there was no sign of the robber. He started walking with caution, trying not to look suspicious to anyone who might be watching him. When he had walked a little more than halfway down, he saw a bag. It was clearly marked as belonging to the bank. Jeff stared in amazement. A million thoughts flashed through his head, all at once. He weighed what he thought were all the possible outcomes, which mostly depicted him coming out on the sweet end of the deal. He imagined himself paying off all his current debts, taking care of his car without getting in trouble, and having enough time to get a new job without falling into more debt. He made up his mind to take the money; but for a minute, he hesitated. He didn’t reach for the bag, but only stared at it.
As soon as he started hearing police sirens close by, he hesitated no more. Jeff reached down and grabbed the bag. As he ran out of the other side of the alley to his nearby home, his heart raced with excitement. His mind began to daydream.
***

As his patrol car pulled up to the bank, Carlos jumped from the moving car and ran to the officers already securing the scene.

“What’s the situation?” Carlos asked.

“The guy fled with the cash, as expected. No one was hurt. No great leads so far though,” one of them responded.

“Alright, I want to talk to everyone myself and see what we can find.”
***

Jeff arrived home not knowing what to do. He stuffed the bag of money under his couch and sat down. He was breathing heavily and could feel his pulse from the veins in his forehead. He sat thinking he should lie low for several days before doing anything. The phone rang, startling Jeff and nearly causing him to knock over the glass decoration next to the phone. He was about to ignore it when he saw it was from his mom.

“Hello?”

“Hi honey, how are things going?”

“Pretty good, Mom, but I really need to go.”

“I just wanted to tell you that the family reunion is coming up and I was wondering…”

“No, I am not going.”

“After all these years, won’t you just try to connect with our extended family?”

“I don’t know anyone and I hated it last time. Sorry, but I really need to go now.”

“Ok. Love you”

“Love you too. Bye”.
***

As Carlos questioned the bank teller, some of the other police officers watched her write down a bunch of information on a piece of paper. He thanked her, told her she could go, then told one of the other detectives to talk to all the other witnesses. He got a set of keys and immediately headed back to the station. He made a several phone calls, and entered in the information the teller had given him into his computer. Then he picked up the phone again. As the phone rung, wondered what to expect from his longtime friend.

“Well, look who’s calling. What are you doing falling asleep on the job over there, Carlos? A big robbery like this hasn’t happened in like… well, I guess it’s never happened in Trenton. That’s embarrassing.”

“Yeah, yeah shut up.” They both enjoyed a good laugh. “What we are about to do has also never happened in this city.”

“You already got a big lead?”

“I have an operation in the works, but I figured I would call and see if you could bring one of your SWAT teams to participate in the raid.”

“I commend you for your speed, but sorry, I have a joint team operation for the SWAT teams planned tonight. You’ll have to find someone else.”
“Very funny. You better be down here in thirty minutes so we can start planning. We need to hit them ASAP so they don’t leave. Send your boys over in the next couple hours for a briefing, but keep it discreet. We wouldn’t want to scare off our little friends who are hiding nearby.” They both chuckled and hung up.
***

Carlos sat in the front row of the small meeting room in the police station. It was usually used for press conferences. He walked up to the small podium with a remote in hand, and tapped on the microphone to see if it was on. “Attention everyone, settle down please. Thank you everyone for your participation. I know you are all dying to hear what is going on, so I won’t delay any longer.” He pressed the button on the remote so his presentation would move to the next slide. “As you know the Trenton bank was recently robbed…” Carlos dove into the details of the robbery.
***

Jeff tried to go about the rest of his day normally, but he could not take his mind off the money under his couch. After an hour of daydreaming, Jeff decided to quit trying to distract himself and focus on the money. He decided that in order to plan for what he would do in the future, he needed to count how much money he had found. He pulled the bag out from under his couch and opened it. Just seeing all the green bills in bundles made his heart skip a beat. He began laying the bundles on the couch next to him. When he was more than halfway done, there was a flash of blue, a whoosh, then darkness.

Jeff could tell he had been blinded by some kind of liquid. He felt his eyes burning. It occurred to him that he had become the victim of a marking agent put inside the bag. He didn’t care about the consequences at the moment. All he could think about was getting it out of his eyes so he could stop the burning. He crawled on the floor to the bathroom and put his face under the faucet.
***

Carlos advanced the slide. “Now for the part you’ve all been waiting for, the raid. We have two SWAT teams, two police Special Forces teams, and a large group of officers to work with. The SWAT teams will enter one from the front door, the other from the back door. The police teams will setup a tight perimeter around the house and be ready for anything. The rest of the police force will be waiting at nearby streets in unmarked cars, ready to create a barrier around the house and stop traffic. Alright, everybody get ready to go.”
***

Jeff sat on the couch not knowing what to do. He was covered in the blue marking ink. It had stained his skin, clothes, wall, and furniture. The majority of the money was ruined, and he knew he was doomed. He sat, at that late hour of the night, wondering what course of action to take next. He had absolutely no clue what to do. At no point in his life had he felt so hopeless. Even when he lost his job, he knew he could look for another one, and there was a great chance he would get back up on his feet. Now, on the other hand, there was no place to turn, no way out.
***

Carlos drove down the street in an unmarked police car. He lifted his radio and spoke, “Shades are all drawn, no signs of a watch being set. Operation is a go. All teams get into position.”

The SWAT and police Special Forces Teams took up positions around the house. “Planting charges,” one of the team leaders whispered into his radio.
***

Jeff whipped around to face the window after hearing a noise in that direction. He strained to listen for any other sounds. After several second, he dismissed the sound and bent over to pick up a bundle of soiled cash.
***

“Team 1, ready.”

“Team 2, good to go.”

“Team 3, in position.”

“Team 4 is ready for action.”

Carlos turned his car around to make another pass down the street, “On my mark 3… 2…1…NOW!”
***
Jeff sat on the couch his whole house seemed to topple in a massive explosion. The windows facing the east and west exploded into fragments and came flying inward. The front doors flew off their hinges. Small elongated cylinders flew into the room from all angles. There was an intense flash of light and a loud bang. This was followed with a dozen more of the same.
***
When the signal was given, the two police Special Forces team leaders pushed the detonator for the explosives on the windows. The SWAT team leaders at the front and back doors detonated breaching explosives on the doors and charged inward with their team, throwing “flash bang” grenades ahead of them. It was over before it began; the SWAT teams had secured Jeff and made sure the rest of the house was clear in less than 45 seconds. By that time, the street and house had come alive with dozens of police cars. Jeff was caught, a helpless mouse in a mighty falcon’s talons.
***
Jeff awoke on a cold bed. Everything was blurry at first, but slowly came into focus. Seeing a small enclosed space and bars, he thought he was dreaming at first. Then he slowly remembered the previous night’s ordeal. “Where I am I? What happened?”
He was startled to hear a voice respond, “You are currently the lone occupant of the Trenton City Jail. You were taken down in a perfectly planned raid, led by me, the Chief of Police in Trenton. You passed out right as you were captured.”
“I didn’t rob the bank.’
“Is that why you are stained blue?”
“I just picked up a bag I found in an alley. Although, I did kinda know it was the bank’s but…”
“Well now, that explains a lot,” Carlos replied, deep in thought.
“What does?”
“From what I can gather, if what you say is true, someone else robbed the bank. None of the descriptions we had matched yours and now here you are saying you didn’t do it.”
“I didn’t rob it. I found it in an alley.”
“I think someone else robbed it, someone who knew that one bag was booby trapped with a marking unit and GPS tracker. They walked down the alley and discarded it. You picked it up, we tracked you and you got marked.”
“Does this mean I can go free?” Jeff asked, hope rising in him.
“Absolutely not.” Jeff’s hope was instantly crushed, “Not only will we try to pin theft on you after knowing stole the money belonged to the bank, but you are also going to pay for the operation last night. Also, you had a very interesting car in your garage which we have been on the lookout for.”
Jeff knew he was in big trouble, “Can I make a phone call?”
Carlos responded, “I guess so.” He let Jeff out of the cell and took him to the phone.
Hanging his head, Jeff dialed his mom.