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Friday, March 29, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Bearded Bank Robber Gets|Six Years in California

SAN DIEGO (CN) - San Diego's "Bearded Bandit," who robbed his first bank hours after getting out of jail, was sentenced Tuesday to 70 months in federal prison.

Christopher Andrew Gibson, 27, of Vista, robbed three San Diego County banks in 31 days last year, the first one just hours after he was released from county jail on unrelated charges.

He robbed a Wells Fargo Bank in San Diego of $1,419 on Oct. 7, after demanding $4,567. Eight days later he robbed a Chase Bank in Vista of $2,240 after demanding "$4,788 in 15 seconds." On Nov. 6 he demanded, and got, $4,000 from another Chase Bank in Vista. He was arrested three days later and has been in jail since then. He could have been sentenced to 20 years in prison on each of three counts of bank robbery.

The average U.S. bank robbery netted about $4,300 in 2006, and increased to about $7,500 by 2010, according to the FBI. That would make Gibson a fairly incompetent bank robber, aside from the fact that he got caught.

Thousands of banks are robbed every year in the United States - more than 10 a day. FBI reports contain interesting information about which sorts of robberies of which places bring in better average hauls, but Courthouse News declines to publish this information. Bank robbers should look it up themselves.

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