A man whom authorities named the “Penguin Bandit” was sentenced to more than 13 years in federal prison last week after robbing multiple banks in the Denver, Colorado area.
Samuel Richard Ruthstrom, 42, made a plea agreement with federal prosecutors after robbing four banks and attempting to rob a fifth in a matter of a few weeks earlier this year, according to court documents. A judge sentenced him on Thursday to serve 160 months concurrently for five counts of bank robbery, as well as three years of supervised release and thousands of dollars in restitution.
U.S. Attorney for the District of Colorado Matt Kirsch said Monday that he “strongly” supports such sentences as “repeat offenders are a menace to our communities.”
An attorney in Ruthstrom’s case declined to comment on the case, citing the policy of the federal public defender’s office.
The Denver Police Department coordinated with an FBI task force on the case and were the responding officers to Ruthstrom’s first robbery on Jan. 2 at the Zing Credit Union. According to the criminal complaint filed in his case, Ruthstrom was wearing a ski mask when he handed the teller a note demanding all the money from her drawer that didn’t have dye packs or tracers.
Ruthstrom was given $385 and fled, the complaint said.
Just days later, Ruthstrom hit a Canvas Credit Union location in a ski mask and told a teller “I need what’s in your drawer.” He took $400 on the afternoon of Jan. 8 and fled.
His third robbery was the next day at a different Canvas Credit Union location where he handed the teller a note demanding $10,000, the complaint said. The teller told Ruthstrom that he activated a “distress system” in the cash dispenser which gives out $400 in twenty-dollar bills and triggers a hold-up alarm.
According to the complaint, Ruthstrom asked for more money, so the teller did this two more times and gave him a total of $1,200 before he left.
Ruthstrom hit two Wells Fargo locations on Jan. 17 and Jan. 18, also demanding the tellers hand over cash to him. The note from the Jan. 18 robbery demanded that the teller give over $10,000 in hundred and fifty dollar bills.
A photo of the note was included in the criminal complaint.
“I don’t care if you have to get them from all the drawers,” the note read. “Now hurry up, move like your life depends on it because it does.”
The teller feared Ruthstrom, who had his hand in his pocket, may have a gun but repeatedly told Ruthstrom he could not help him. Ruthstrom demanded the note back, but the teller refused, and Ruthstrom left without any money.
A crime stopper alert went out on social media on Jan. 19 describing the robber as the “Penguin Bandit” for his heavy build and a distinct “waddle.”
A tip naming Ruthstrom came in just days later and investigators found that he was out on parole for a previous state burglary conviction. The FBI member on the investigation task force compared surveillance video from Ruthstrom’s visit to a parole office and noted that he walked like the bank robbery suspect.
A search warrant for Ruthstrom’s phone records also showed that his phone pinged nearby cell towers at the time of the robberies and left immediately after the robberies occurred. In four of the cases, his phone left the vicinity of the banks and went toward the area of a treatment facility Ruthstrom was required to visit as part of his parole, the complaint said.
Ruthstrom’s Jeep Grand Cherokee was also seen near one of the robberies, the complaint said.
