A 74-year-old man, dubbed the "fedora bandit" by law enforcement agents, pleaded guilty today in federal court in Sacramento to three counts of armed bank robbery.
David Griffith Osborne, formerly of Carson City, pleaded guilty to robbing the American River Bank, 9750 Business Park Drive, in Rancho Cordova on June 3, 2010, as well as the Bank of the West in Gridley on April 26, 2010, and the Chase Bank in Paradise on June 29, 2010, according to a federal Department of Justice news release.
Osborne also admitted to four other bank robberies at Bank of the West branches in Grass Valley, Dec. 22, 2009, and March 31, 2010; South Lake Tahoe, Feb. 18, 2010; Kings Beach, March 9, 2010.
He will be required to pay restitution for all seven robberies.
In each of the robberies, Osborne wore a hat, sunglasses, a fake mustache and goatee, and demanded money while brandishing a firearm. He was identified on surveillance images, and after the June 29, 2010, robbery of the Paradise Bank, his DNA was recovered from an abandoned bicycle that he used as a getaway vehicle, authorities said. Law enforcement personnel matched the DNA to Osborne, who confessed to the seven armed robberies and also admitted to robbing the Bank of the West at 2976 N. Carson St. in Carson City.
Osborne is to be sentenced March 29 by U.S. District Judge Garland E. Burrell Jr.
The case resulted from an investigation by the FBI with the assistance of the Grass Valley, South Lake Tahoe, Gridley and Paradise police departments; the Placer County and Sacramento County sheriff's departments; and the Carson City Sheriff's Office.
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