GLENDALE : 63-Year-Old Gets 40 Years for 10 Armed Robberies

A 63-year-old known as the “Old Man Bandit” was sentenced Tuesday to 40 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to a string of armed robberies, authorities said.

Edwin W. Loftus of Glendale pleaded guilty to 10 counts of armed robbery in Los Angeles Superior Court. Although he faced 39 felony counts and a 90-year sentence, the judge gave him the lesser sentence because Loftus “would no longer be a danger to society after he served that time,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Karen Thorp.

“The earliest he will be out of prison, including prison time credits, is when he turns 81,” the prosecutor said.

Loftus, often described as a man “who looks just like anybody’s grandfather,” was originally accused of 27 counts of second-degree robbery, four counts of receiving stolen property, three counts of assault with a deadly weapon, three counts of attempted robbery, one count of evading arrest and one count of illegal possession of a gun, for crimes that occurred over a four-year span ending in 1992, authorities said.