It's a good thing the FBI believes it has captured the so-called “Red Sharpie Bandit.”
Who knows what kind of evil would have been wrought had he joined forces with a fellow bank robber known as the “Blue Note Bandit”?
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The FBI says Anthony William Frisco, 44, who has recently resided in both San Clemente and Las Vegas, but is now holed up at the San Luis Obispo County Jail, is the Red Sharpie Bandit, so named because a red magic marker was used during these 11 bank robberies:
- 01/12/2009 Washington Mutual, San Clemente
- 03/16/2009 Downey Savings, Dana Point
- 05/11/2009 Chase Bank, San Clemente
- 09/01/2009 Rabobank, Pismo Beach
- 10/13/2009 Wachovia Bank, Seal Beach
- 10/27/2009 Chase Bank, San Luis Obispo
- 10/30/2009 U.S. Bank, Dana Point
- 11/09/2009 Wachovia Bank, Seal Beach
- 12/07/2009 Chase Bank, San Clemente
- 12/14/2009 Wells Fargo, San Luis Obispo
- 12/14/2009 Wells Fargo, Nipomo
“Media coverage,” says the bureau, led to Frisco being picked up by Santa Barbara County sheriff's deputies. His bail was set at $500,000, and he could face additional state or federal charges and/or be tied to other heists.
Meanwhile, the Blue Note Bandit, who is named after his choice of paper color for notes to tellers demanding cash lest they be shot up, has apparently struck again. The latest robbery was Monday at the Wells Fargo inside a Stater Bros. supermarket on El Toro Road. His first job was Oct. 13 at a
Seal Beach branch. He's also hit seven other banks in Aliso
Viejo, Costa Mesa, Tustin, Irvine, Laguna Hills and San Juan Capistrano, according to authorities.
He is
described as white, in his 30s, 5 feet 10 with a thin build and medium
length brown hair. He is not Tobias Fünke, as previously surmised here, nor the Croatian funk-rap band Blue Note Bandit.
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.