"Waddling Bandit" sentenced to 10 years

EUGENE, Ore. — The "Waddling Bandit" has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for a string of bank robberies in the Pacific Northwest.

U.S. District Court Judge Michael Hogan on Tuesday also ordered Dante P. Dapolonia to repay the roughly $88,000 he took from banks and credit unions from Everett to Medford, Ore.

Dapolonia, 63, a former 911 dispatcher in Vancouver, Wash., pleaded guilty to 10 unarmed bank robberies and acknowledged 20 others that weren't included in the plea deal.

The case got its unusual name because bank tellers in many of the heists described the robber as an elderly white man who walked with a waddle. The case gained national attention last year when Robert Christie, an Oregon retiree, spent 10 days in jail before the FBI announced they had the wrong man.

Six months later, the FBI arrested Dapolonia in Springfield, Ore.

In a pre-sentence memo to Hogan, Assistant U.S. Attorney Frank Papagni Jr. provided a window into how Dapolonia managed to go so long without getting caught. He disguised himself differently for each robbery, using techniques gleaned from his ex-wife, who studied for a fine-arts degree in costuming and theatrical makeup during their marriage. He also rented different vehicles to drive to and from his targets.

Dapolonia's attorney urged leniency in his pre-sentence letter to the judge, saying 10 years was an unusually long sentence for unarmed bank robbery and would amount to a life sentence for his client because of his age.

But Papagni urged Hogan to impose the full sentence possible under the plea deal, noting that Dapolonia had exploited his experience as a police dispatcher to avoid getting caught and to reduce the consequences if he did.

In the notes he handed tellers, for example, he was careful not to threaten harm or claim he had a weapon because he knew that could lead to a longer sentence, the prosecutor said.

According to court documents, Dapolonia told the FBI it wasn't until after investigators cleared Christie that he learned of the innocent man's arrest. At that point he figured his time was running out.

"I thought 'well, you know someone is bound to recognize me because I recognize myself in those pictures,' " he told the FBI in court documents.