Busy Bandit’s Score Stands at 24 Banks

In the last photo taken, he looks like a college student let out of classes for the day. His crisp plaid shirt is button-down. He wears Topsiders--no socks--and cuffed jeans.

Hiding his eyes are cheap sunglasses, and he lugs a duffel bag on his left shoulder. No older than 22 or 23, his skin is smooth, his hair short and face expressionless.

In other photos, he is dressed differently, but there is one constant: his deadpan face looks directly, and sometimes defiantly, at the camera. He doesn’t run. He strolls.

San Diego police take no solace in those youthful looks or calm demeanor. Since Feb. 5, this young man has embarked on a bank robbery spree of a magnitude and manner that has old-timers in the San Diego Police Department debating whether there’s been anything quite like it before.

“We checked with a sergeant who’s been here the longest, and this guy is at the top of the list,” said Capt. Dick Toneck, who heads the San Diego Police Department’s robbery division. “What is he all about? We’ll let you know when we catch him.”

Between Feb. 5 and March 29, a period when banks were open 45 days, he walked into 24 banks from Del Mar to downtown and walked out with a total of about $25,000.

On the latter date, he set a record for robberies in the city by hitting four banks in four different areas within two hours.

During the first seven robberies--three of which occurred within six hours on the same day--he wore the green and gold baseball cap of the American League champion Oakland A’s. Detectives immediately branded him the “A’s Bandit.”

Since then, he has abandoned the A’s cap and appeared in a variety of outfits: a white sweat shirt, a white dress shirt, a white jacket, a gray jacket, a black denim jacket, a brown suit, an olive-green suit and flowered shirt with a dark riding cap, blue jeans and white tennis shoes, cowboy boots.

He has always worn sunglasses, either plastic or wire-framed. Several times, his hair was slicked straight back. His features are so fair and build so slight that detectives at first believed that he was a woman.

His demand note is essentially the same each time. “Give me all the money in your drawer, I have a gun. If you don’t, I’ll shoot,” it says. The bandit retrieves his notes and no teller has ever seen a gun.

What may help the bandit best are his nonchalance and clean-cut looks.

During robbery No. 23, at the Imperial Savings branch in La Jolla, he was dressed in a red sweater and blue jeans. He handed the teller a note, took back the note with the cash, and was gone in less than a minute.

He walked past the desk of Holly Davidson, the branch manager, who said she looked up for a second and back down at her work. It was 10:20 a.m. and the bank lobby was not crowded.

“He looks like anyone’s neighbor or son, and that really works to his advantage,” she said. “There’s no reason to take a second look at him. He walked in confidently and appropriately, like he belonged in the bank. He looks like he belongs at UC San Diego.”

The next thing Davidson knew, a teller said she had been robbed. Immediately, the doors were locked. The FBI and 911 were called. The home office was notified. Fingerprints were taken. The teller was brought to a room so she could be questioned and fill out paperwork on the suspect.

The A’s Bandit had grabbed a few hundred dollars, placed it on top of an oversized pouch, walked out the door, and began running. In all the robberies, he has never been seen in a car or near any vehicle.

Five days before the thief struck Imperial, Davidson discussed with her employees the possibility that he might appear at any time. She ordered that the amount of money that each teller would keep at their windows be cut by half.

Having been in four robberies, Davidson is still struck by his looks.

“In the other situations, the person who robbed us looked like a robber or very aggressive from the moment he opened the door,” she said. “You sort of expected violence. Not this guy. He was Joe Customer.”

Since March 29, when he covered 20 miles and robbed banks in Ocean Beach, Pacific Beach, La Jolla and Kearny Mesa, he has not struck again.

“What does that mean?” Toneck asked. “He could be out of town, he could be sick, he could have enough money by now or just waiting for the newspapers to stop writing about him.”

Police won’t speculate about the robber’s motives. They will only say that about 80% of all bank robbers support a drug habit and eventually, 80% get caught.

Nor do they take kindly to questions about why the A’s Bandit has not been nabbed.

“If you look at the 24 cases versus the hundreds of banks in the city, there’s no way we could be at every one,” Lt. Jerry Moody said. “He’s just lucked out. It’s a matter of time before he’s caught.”

After 24 robberies, no clear pattern has emerged. Most of the banks are near major freeways. Nine have occurred either in Pacific Beach or Ocean Beach. Of the four banks robbed in Pacific Beach, all are on Garnet Avenue, 11 blocks apart. Only one bank has been hit twice. Two are downtown. Six are Security Pacific Bank branches.

He has struck 11 times on Friday, five times on Thursday and five times on Monday.

Each take was not much in itself. He got as little as $300 at one bank and as much as $1,200 at another. He took what was handed to him and never asked for more.

Tellers believed they would tag him by sticking dye packs--packets of bills concealing containers of dye that explode and stain a thief’s hands or clothing--but after several robberies, he calmly told them to hand over the real thing.

Law enforcement officers agree on one point concerning the A’s Bandit: He will be caught.

“He’ll trip up. They always do,” said former San Diego robbery detective Dudley Williams, who retired in October.

“I guarantee this guy is hooked on heroin or crack,” he said. “In the old days, the bad guys got the money and bought the ranch and lived happily ever after. Now they support their habits.”

In the past week, San Diego police and FBI agents have been trying to trap him by staking out various banks. They won’t disclose how many people are on the case.

But past surveillance projects have pulled together as many as 50 members of the robbery unit, SWAT team, FBI and the patrol division nearest to where the stakeout is taking place, Williams said. Some will be roaming on bicycles. Some will be in cars. Many will be in street clothes.

“He must be real cocky by now. He must be feeling real good about getting away so many times,” said Juan Garcia, manager of the Security Pacific branch in Clairemont that was robbed Feb. 22.

“We won’t feel good until they catch him. There’s an uneasiness around here that people just can’t get used to.”

A’s BANDIT BANK HOLD-UP SPREE 1. 2/5/91 - Tuesday, 2:30 p.m., Mitsubishi Bank, 320 B St.

2. 2/11/91 - Monday, 10:58 a.m., Peninsula Bank, 4827 Newport Ave.

3. 2/15/91 - Friday, 10:20 a.m., Bank of America, 4976 Newport Ave.

4. 2/21/91 - Thursday, 12:06 p.m., Security Pacific Bank, 875 Garnet St.

5. 2/22/91 - Friday, 12:45 p.m., Great Western Bank, 3609 Midway Drive.

6. 2/22/91 - Friday, 1:35 p.m., Home Savings, 110 W. Ash St.

7. 2/22/91 - Friday, 6:03 p.m., Security Pacific, 3091 Clairemont Drive.

8. 2/25/91 - Monday, 10:44 a.m. Home Federal, 3503 Sports Arena Blvd.

9. 3/1/91 - Friday, 9:24 a.m., Union Bank, Cable Street.

10. 3/4/91 - Monday, 11:35 a.m., Wells Fargo Bank, 1701 Garnet St.

11. 3/6/91 - Wednesday, 9:35 a.m., Security Pacific, 1180 Rosecrans St., Point Loma.

12. 3/7/91 - Thursday, 12:45 p.m., Bank of America, 1275 Rosecrans St., Point Loma.

13. 3/8/91 - Friday, 2 p.m., Glendale Federal, 1910 Garnet Ave., Pacific Beach.

14. 3/12/91 - Tuesday, 10:15 a.m., Coast Federal, 4111 Governor Drive, University City.

15. 3/15/91 - Friday, 11:05 a.m., Great Western, 1881 Sunset Cliffs Blvd., Ocean Beach.

16. 3/18/91 - Monday, 11:30 a.m., San Diego Trust & Savings, 6906 Miramar Road.

17. 3/21/91 - Thursday, 9:45 a.m., HomeFed Bank, 8400 Genesee Ave., University City.

18. 3/25/91 - Monday, 10:10 a.m., Flagship Federal, 4000 Governor Drive, University City.

19. 3/28/91 - Thursday, 10:47 a.m., Security Pacific, 3535 Del Mar Heights. Road, Del Mar.

20. 3/28/91 - Thursday, 12:06 p.m., Security Pacific, 8813 Villa La Jolla Drive, La Jolla.

21. 3/29/91 - Friday, 9:30 a.m., Bank of America, 4900 Newport Ave., Ocean Beach.

22. 3/29/91 - Friday, 10 a.m., HomeFed, 1000 Garnet Ave., Pacific Beach.

23. 3/29/91 - Friday, 10:20 a.m., Imperial Savings, 7800 Ivanhoe Ave., La Jolla.

24. 3/29/91 - Friday, 11:20 a.m., Security Pacific, 7373 Clairemont Mesa Blvd., Kearny Mesa.