Judge Sentences 84-Year-Old Man to 21 Years for Armed CU Branch Robbery

Robert Francis Krebs, who spent most of his adult life behind bars, told investigators he robbed the $221 million Pyramid Federal Credit Union in Tucson, Ariz., in January 2018 because he was unable to adjust to life on the outside and wanted to go back to prison.

On Tuesday, the 84-year-old career criminal convicted of armed bank robbery by a jury in March 2020 was finally granted his wish.

U.S. District Court Judge Jennifer G. Zipps in Tucson sentenced Krebs to 21 years and eight months in federal prison. He also was sentenced to serve five years of supervised release.

“Defendant is a career offender and a menace to society,” prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memo, recommending the 21 years and eight-month prison sentence. “Defendant’s advanced 82 years of age (at the time of the credit union robbery) and limited physical condition did not deter him from committing a bank robbery with the use of a simulated weapon (a BB gun). Videotape from the bank show him walking in and out of the bank. His physical condition did not hinder him from crossing a major street during a busy afternoon on a weekday to slip inside the Tucson Mall shopping center and spend hours inside in hopes of avoiding apprehension. Defendant was proud of his criminal history in that he bragged to a motel clerk on several occasions by showing her newspaper clippings of prior offenses, which mentioned his name.”

Prosecutors noted that a credit union teller victim, only identified as K.S.A., may be seeking restitution. She submitted a victim impact statement that the trauma of the armed bank robbery created great stress and anxiety for her.

“She experiences lingering emotional trauma, which took away her ability to do her job correctly. She feels anxious going into a bank. She changed jobs and her residence,” prosecutors wrote in their memo. “She is requesting $5,000 in restitution. She lost several days of work due to the emotional trauma she sustained, and the days lost were unpaid.”

On Jan. 12, 2018, Krebs walked into the Pyramid branch with a black BB handgun and stole more than $8,000. Police captured him the next day without incident. The octogenarian’s crime drew national headlines for weeks.

Krebs told FBI investigators he didn’t wear a disguise because he wanted to go back to prison where he “didn’t have to contend with what’s going on in the outside world with cell phones and everything else.” He also robbed the credit union because he needed cash, complaining that the $800 monthly Social Security check was not enough to live on.

His first crime occurred in 1966 when he was convicted and served three years in prison for embezzlement at a Chicago bank where he worked as a teller. After that, he served many years in prison for committing other crimes such as grand larceny, theft, robbery and kidnapping in three states.

His prior serious offenses included the threatened use of violence and use of weapons to intimidate victims.

For example, prosecutors said that Krebs committed a violent bank robbery in Sanford, Fla., in which he handcuffed and tied two bank employees and placed them in a vault. In another armed robbery, Krebs used a handgun to escape from sheriff deputies and tied their hands and feet and taped their mouths.

After he was released on June 1, 2017 and was on parole in Florida, where he had been serving a 75-year sentence for robbery and kidnapping, he violated his parole conditions in November 2017 and ended up in Tucson.

Prosecutors said Florida is expected to pursue violation proceedings against Krebs to revoke his parole.

Krebs’ attorneys did not respond to CU Times‘ request for comment.