David Sartin Jr.

Introduction

David Sartin Jr. is a 40-year-old St. Petersburg, Florida, man charged by federal criminal complaint with two counts of bank robbery, after authorities said he robbed a bank in Largo on August 24, 2026, and another in his hometown on September 15, 2026, both times wearing a prosthetic “old man” mask with grey facial hair. The announcement came from U.S. Attorney Gregory W. Kehoe’s office for the Middle District of Florida, which said Sartin faces up to 20 years in federal prison on each count if convicted. Both alleged robberies took place while he was on supervised release for a 2018 federal conviction — a 10-years-and-one-month sentence for five Texas bank robberies committed in 2016, in which prosecutors say he wore a similar mask and used the same getaway vehicle.

Background Information

Sartin’s record of bank robbery spans nearly two decades. In 2008, he was convicted in federal court of attempted bank robbery after he and a co-conspirator tried to rob a bank wearing Halloween masks and disguises, according to the Justice Department. The 2016 Texas spree — five banks, again in disguise — led to the 2018 sentence of 10 years and one month, and he was on supervised release for that conviction when the two Pinellas County robberies he is now charged with occurred. The FBI investigated alongside the Largo Police Department and the St. Petersburg Police Department, and the case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Belkis H. Callaos as part of the Justice Department’s Project Safe Neighborhoods initiative.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Charged with two counts of bank robbery in a federal criminal complaint. The charges are accusations in a complaint, not convictions: Sartin has not been tried on the 2026 counts, and he is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty. His 2008 and 2018 convictions, by contrast, are matters of court record. No public statement from Sartin or a defense attorney appears in the coverage to date.

Prosecutors allege that on August 24, 2026, Sartin robbed a bank in Largo after arriving at a nearby gas station, driving through the surrounding area, parking, and switching to a bicycle for the approach. He entered wearing the “old man” mask, approached the teller counter, demanded money, and instructed the teller not to include dye packs, according to court documents; the New York Post reported he got away with $2,900 and said “until we meet again” before fleeing on the bicycle, retrieving his staged vehicle and driving off. Surveillance video, investigators said, later captured his car and bicycle near the bank shortly before the robbery.

The second robbery came on September 15, 2026, at a bank in St. Petersburg, again by a masked robber who demanded cash and ordered no dye packs — this time making off with $2,554, per the complaint as reported by the Post. Video surveillance captured a vehicle leaving Sartin’s home before the robbery and returning afterward, with a man resembling him unloading a bicycle, the complaint states; the next day, investigators observed Sartin spray-painting the vehicle’s white roof black so the entire car appeared black. The searches that followed tied the alleged disguise together: his residence yielded a bicycle, a blue suit and black bag matching the first robbery and a black suit matching the second; his storage unit held the grey-whiskered “old man” mask, dark-framed glasses, paint-stained work gloves, a fake handgun, and clothing consistent with the second robbery’s disguise, including a pinstriped sports coat and dark blue flat cap; and at another residence where he occasionally stayed, agents found a second prosthetic mask and a handwritten journal dated January 1, 2021, titled “God’s Best friend is a Bank Robber! Uncle Henry Cops and Robbers the world through the eyes of a Bank Robber,” signed “written by: David Sartin,” with a drawing of a figure holding up a mask captioned “My face holding up uncle Henry, looking at it, Face to Face.”

Public Reaction and Consequences

The announcement drew wide pickup for its uncommon detail — a serial robber allegedly returning to the same elderly-man disguise a decade apart — with PEOPLE noting Sartin now faces up to 40 years across the two counts if convicted, and WFLA reporting that jail records show he was arrested September 21 and remains in the Pinellas County Jail. WFLA described a man on supervised release from a string of bank robberies “back behind bars” after the FBI accused him of two more; coverage emphasized that the disguise, the dye-pack instructions and even the vehicle allegedly repeated the pattern of his 2016 Texas robberies. No public defense statement appears in the coverage, and the complaint’s allegations remain untested in court.

Current Status

As of the October 2026 announcements, Sartin has been charged by criminal complaint with two counts of bank robbery, each carrying a statutory maximum of 20 years, and remains in the Pinellas County Jail following his September 21 arrest, per jail records cited by WFLA. He was separately on supervised release for the 2018 conviction at the time of the alleged robberies, and the new counts are untried — no conviction appears in the record on the 2026 charges, and the case is pending before the Middle District of Florida, prosecuted by AUSA Belkis H. Callaos.

Impact on Their Career/Life

A third bank-robbery case in eighteen years now hangs over Sartin, and the two 2026 counts — allegedly committed weeks apart while under federal supervision — expose him to up to 20 years on each, on top of whatever becomes of his supervised-release status. The complaint’s inventory of seized items, from two prosthetic masks to a self-authored bank-robber journal, has made the case a widely shared curiosity, but for Sartin the practical effect is straightforward: a staged-vehicle-and-bicycle method investigators say they unraveled through surveillance, forensic detail and his own signature in a notebook, and a potential sentence that could extend past his sixties. The case sits within the Justice Department’s Project Safe Neighborhoods and Operation Take Back America violent-crime push, which prosecutors cited in the announcement.

Sources

• “Previously Convicted Bank Robber Charged Again for Robbing Banks Wearing ‘Old Man’ Mask” — U.S. Attorney’s Office, Middle District of Florida (DOJ): source
• “Serial bank robber wearing ‘old man’ mask nabbed by feds for same crime 10 years later” — New York Post: source
• “Convicted Bank Robber Wearing ‘Old Man’ Disguise Charged with Robbing 2 Fla. Banks” — PEOPLE: source
• “40-year-old in ‘old man’ mask accused of robbing 2 Pinellas County banks: DOJ” — WFLA: source
• “Serial bank robber wearing ‘old man’ mask nabbed by feds for same crime 10 years later” — New York Post on X: source