High school football coach quits after accusations of stealing cash from students 
 
 Barnes, 43, submitted a letter of resignation Wednesday morning during meeting with the Volusia County Public Schools' Professional Standards office, said school district spokeswoma Nancy Wait. 
 
 Hours after posting bail for charges related to stealing money from students, New Smyrna Beach High School football coach, Rodney Barnes has resigned, school officials say. 
 
 After a sneaking suspicion that a series of thefts in the boy's locker room at New Smyrna Beach High School was an inside job, school officials took tracking down a culprit into their own hands. 
 
 By April 25, nine students had already reported that about $950 had been stolen from their lockers so Operation Sticky Fingers was launched. 
 
 With the help of school resource officers and a student, school administrators purchased an ultraviolet theft detection kit with included a luminescent powder to coat decoy cash. 
 
 Officials dusted $141 in cash with the powder, which is invisible except under a black light, then slipped the money along with a teenager's school ID and other items into a wallet and tucked the booby-trapped loot inside a locker. 
 
 Then they waited for someone to take the bait. 
 
 When some of the money finally went missing on Monday, Volusia County deputies used the ultraviolet light to check the hands of all the students who had access to the locker room that day. 
 
 They were all cleared so deputies moved on to the coaching staff and finally found Barnes, a physical education teacher and assistant varsity football coach with his hands aglow with the telltale powder, deputies said. 
 
 As in the previous thefts, only a portion of the money was taken from the decoy wallet. 
 
 Barnes admitted to thefts worth about $170 but deputies say he will likely be linked to even more missing cash. 
 
 He was booked into the Volusia County Branch Jail on $3,000 bail. He faces charges of grand theft and burglary. 
 
 The school board will forward information about his arrest and resignation to the Florida Department of Education who will decide if Barnes will still be able to use his teaching certificate to find work at another school. 
 
 dstennett@tribune.com or 407-420-5447 

 A New Smyrna Beach High School gym teacher, who's also a football coach, was arrested and is accused of stealing money from students' gym lockers. 
 
 Deputies said they arrested Rodney Barnes, a physical education teacher and the assistant varsity football coach, on Monday at New Smyrna Beach High School. 
 
 The investigation began in late April when students at the high school reported cash missing from their wallets in the boys' locker room. Deputies said nine students were believed to have lost a total of almost $1,000. 
 
 "I think it's a pretty disgusting thing," New Smryna Beach resident Mari Reed said. 
 
 Unable to put cameras in the locker room, Volusia County deputies decided to put decoy money in a student's wallet that was covered with an invisible, ultraviolet powder. 
 
 The decoy money was taken on Monday, authorities said. The same day, deputies said they used an ultraviolet light to check the hands of students and faculty. According to investigators, the 43-year-old Barnes had the powder on his hands when authorities checked him. 
 
 "I think that’s wrong that you’d steal from student, because they trust you. You’re their coach. They expect to be able to put things in their locker and not be stolen from their coach," said student Kylie Fettes. 
 
 The student who helped with the sting emailed Channel 9 saying, "I don't have any further comments on the subject. I just wanted to do what was right." 
 
 Authorities said the coach admitted to stealing $170 from the gym lockers, but investigators said much more money has been reported missing. 
 
 Barnes was booked into the Volusia County Jail on a $3,000 bond, and charged with burglary and grand theft. He bonded out of jail late Tuesday night. 
 
 Channel 9 has learned Barnes will not fight for his job and has already submitted a letter of resignation. The school board will vote on May 27 as to whether they'll accept the resignation. 
 
 It will be up to the state Board of Education to decide whether Barnes will lose his teaching certificate. 
 
 Deputies said they continue to investigate the case.
– Someone was stealing money from lockers in the boys' locker room at New Smyrna Beach High School in Florida ... and it ended up being probably the last person you'd expect. By April 25, $950 had been stolen from nine students, so school officials used an ultraviolet theft-detection kit to coat $141 in cash with an invisible luminescent powder. Invisible, that is, until it's put under a blacklight. They put the money into a wallet along with a school ID and other items, and put the wallet in a locker ... and when some of the cash went missing Monday, deputies checked the hands of everyone who had access to the locker room to look for the powder. All of the students were cleared after having their hands checked under the UV light, so deputies checked the coaching staff, and found that assistant varsity football coach and PE teacher Rodney Barnes was allegedly to blame. (Officials went with the sting operation because they couldn't put cameras in the locker room, WFTV explains.) Barnes, 43, admitted to taking $170, but deputies think they can link him to more of the thefts, the Orlando Sentinel reports. He faces charges of grand theft and burglary ... and, not surprisingly, he has resigned from the high school.