First, the Waddling Bandit. Next ... Mullethead?

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November 12, 2007

By Anita Burke

Mail Tribune

The scruffy-maned, plaid-clad robber who hit the Key Bank at the corner of Crater Lake Avenue and McAndrews Road last Monday had better watch out.

Not only are FBI agents on his trail and investigating possible links to recent bank robberies in Salem, Portland and Eugene, they're also batting around humiliating nicknames for the perp that would make a playground taunter proud.

"Mullethead was my nomination," said Mike Sweeney, a spokesman at the FBI office in Portland. "Did you see his hair?"

Sweeney said in recent years investigators "have made more of an effort to come up with catchy names."

"It's almost an unwritten contest between field offices," he said.

The best sobriquets for suspects should be descriptive but demeaning, Sweeney said. A shot of humor is good and the tag shouldn't point out heroic or praise-worthy characteristics.

A portly robber with a distinctive gait suspected in about 20 bank robberies along the Interstate 5 corridor over the past two years was dubbed "The Waddling Bandit" by the bank robbery coordinator at the Portland FBI office, teams of agents working the case and bureau spokespeople who distribute information to the media.

He is suspected of robbing a U.S. Bank branch inside an Albertson's store on North Phoenix Road in Medford on Aug. 2.

FBI agents arrested Robert Christie, 71, of Tillamook, last month and charged him with one of the robberies attributed to the Waddling Bandit — an Oct. 16 heist at a Bank of America in Albany.

The Portland FBI office's Web site also lists the Bandana Bandit, who targeted Eugene banks this summer, and the Grocery Store Bandit, who targeted in-store bank branches in northern Oregon this year.

Whatever investigators end up calling the robber who hit Medford's Key Bank, they are looking closely at the possibility that it wasn't the first time he had robbed that bank. The same branch was robbed Sept. 14 and the suspect's description and details of the crimes seem similar, local and federal investigators said.

In both robberies, a man in his 30s or early 40s came to the bank shortly after 10 a.m., presented a demand note to a teller, then fled to a waiting car on Covina Avenue, Medford police said.

In the September robbery, the suspect was described as a white man, roughly 6 feet, 5 inches tall and weighing at least 200 pounds, with shoulder-length sandy brown hair and a mustache. He was wearing a green, plaid flannel shirt or jacket, jeans and a brown baseball cap with a light-colored logo on the front.

In this month's robbery, the suspect was described as about 6 feet, 3 inches tall, with a husky build. He had longish "dirty blond" hair, a mustache and goatee. He was last seen wearing a long-sleeve, blue, plaid flannel shirt with a grey hood, white tennis shoes, blue jeans and a dark blue baseball cap with an emblem on it, police said.

Investigators are also exploring the possibility that he could be linked to a robbery in Salem, as well as others elsewhere in the state, FBI officials said. No additional details were available on those cases.

Reach reporter Anita Burke at 776-4485 or aburke@mailtribune.com

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