A’s Bandit Suits Up for Latest Heist

The A’s bank bandit did it again Friday, though this time he threw everyone a curve.

Known for wearing an Oakland A’s baseball hat, or one from any of several other major league baseball teams, the robber has bedeviled police while striking 15 San Diego banks in a little more than a month.

But in his latest heist he didn’t wear a baseball cap.

Besides abandoning his trademark cap, the man believed to have been robbing Ocean Beach and Midway-Loma Portal banks since Feb. 5, appears to be altering his modus operandi, police spokesman Bill Robinson said.

In robbing an Ocean Beach bank Friday, he traded in his backpack for a maroon attache case with gold clasps and was wearing a suit instead of sports clothes, his usual robbery wardrobe, police said.

The robber walked into a Great Western Bank branch in the 1800 block of Sunset Cliffs Boulevard at about 11:05 a.m. and gave a teller a note demanding money and stating he was armed, Robinson said.

The bandit told the teller not to give him a dye pack--a prepackaged bundle of money that’s equipped with a special exploding dye, Robinson said.

As the thief walked out the bank door with $2,361, a bank teller who thought he recognized the bandit from a newspaper picture followed him down Sunset Cliffs Boulevard but lost sight of him when the robber disappeared into an alley, Robinson said.

In the last two weeks, the A’s robber is believed to have held up six banks.

Robinson described the robber as white, in his 20s, 5-foot-8 to 6-foot, 150 to 165 pounds with a thin build and a youthful appearance. He has short blond or light-brown hair and is clean-shaven with a pale to light complexion. He wore an olive-drab suit and sunglasses during Friday’s robbery.