FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -  Police say they caught Cedrick Shivers red-handed, literally, when dye packs exploded in his car minutes after he held up a bank in Wilton Manors on Friday.

The arrest came just months after Shivers, a former accountant, wrote to a federal judge asking to be excused from paying the remainder of the restitution he owed for 16 bank robberies he committed in Broward and Palm Beach counties during a seven-month period ending in 2002.

Shivers sold his own blood plasma to make payments toward the $18,705 he owed in restitution, he wrote in the May 16 letter. He'd also worked jobs holding advertising signs on the street, but was on the "brink of being homeless" with no more job prospects, he wrote.

"I paid for my crime by spending six years in prison, which in turn has caused me to be blackballed from many jobs due to my criminal background," wrote Shivers, 47, of Fort Lauderdale.

He was just two months from successfully completing his three years of supervised release, the federal version of probation, at the time and feared he would be locked up again if he missed an installment.

"I have no assets to speak of except my 1998 Chevy Cavalier (which I am planning on sleeping in for a while)," Shivers wrote. "... I would like to start over with a clean slate, putting this whole dilemma behind me as I continue my quest to become a productive member of society again."

U.S. District Judge William Zloch turned down his request and it appears that Shivers, who had been dubbed "the early morning bandit" because he struck soon after the banks opened, managed to pay back what he owed.

If the allegations against Shivers are proven, it seems his efforts at reform ended around 9 a.m. on Friday.

Federal prosecutors said Wilton Manors police pulled over Shivers for speeding just minutes after a holdup at the Iberia Bank on Wilton Drive.

"You got me red-handed," Shivers told the officer, referring to the dye on his hands, according to an affidavit in the federal case filed against him.

The officer said the red dye packs – that were included with the stolen $2,940 – had exploded.

The officer said he also saw stains on Shivers' white T-shirt, red smoke in the passenger area, and dye-stained money on the driver's seat.

According to court records, Shivers admitted to the Friday hold up when FBI Task Force agents questioned him. He told agents that he had been casing the bank since November and had planned to rob it on Feb. 10, "the day before his girlfriend's birthday, but opted for today as he needed the money for rent," agents wrote in court records.

A robbery demand note that was used in the robbery was also found in Shivers' vehicle, agents wrote.

"This is a robbery. No silent alarms – no dye packs! Give me only 100's and 50's – loose bills. Failure to comply or if I get less than $4,000 will result in bombing of building by my accomplice," the note read.

Shivers told police he ran from the bank to his Chevy, which he had parked at a nearby gas station, but the red dye and tear gas exploded in the car and he was having trouble seeing just before the officer pulled him over.

Bank employees and another witness identified Shivers as the robber and he was treated for burns he received on his hands, according to agents.