San Diego

A man known as the “Bank of America Bandit” was arrested near his home Wednesday in connection with seven bank holdups, police said.

Sidney Dobson, 35, was arrested about 6 p.m. by robbery detectives who had been staking out his San Diego home near Winona and Zion avenues after a joint investigation with the FBI, police spokesman Bill Robinson said.

Dobson, who reportedly wore a long-sleeve, flannel shirt during the holdups, allegedly committed seven bank robberies since September, the most recent one April 15 at the Grossmont Bank branch on Mission Gorge Road, Robinson said.

The robber is called the Bank of America Bandit because four of the seven robberies involved that bank, Robinson said. Dobson gave tellers a note saying he had a gun, and he pretended to have a weapon, the spokesman said.