CNN
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A Kansas man who drew attention for dressing up in a full wolf costume at Kansas City Chiefs games and removing his ankle monitor while out on bail on a bank robbery charge has been arrested in California , according to one press release from the federal authorities.
Xaviar Michael Babudar, a 28-year-old known to fans Super Bowl 2023 champions by his Twitter handle ChiefsAholic, was arrested Friday in Lincoln, Calif., just 30 miles northeast of Sacramento, after more than three months on the run, the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Western District said in a statement of Missouri.
Babudar, of Overland Park, Kansas, disappeared in late March after posting bail in February after being arrested and charged in December on suspicion of robbing a Tulsa County, Oklahoma, credit union, according to a affidavits filed in this case.
Federal authorities now claim in a recently opened criminal complaint that prior to his arrest on those charges, he had traveled to “various locations throughout the Midwestern United States to commit a series of robberies at various banks and credit unions.” Authorities say he laundered the proceeds of the robbery through casinos and bank accounts, according to the affidavit.
The federal criminal complaint charges him with bank robbery and interstate transportation of stolen goods, on suspicion of taking nearly $70,000 from tellers at Great Western Bank in Clive, Iowa, in March 2022 and taking that money to Missouri.
Additional fees may apply, according to the press release.
A spokesman for the US Attorney’s office, Don Ledford, had no comment and referred CNN to the press release.
Babudar made his initial court appearance Tuesday afternoon in California, according to his appointed public defender, Hannah Labaree, who said the proceedings were “largely procedural.”
The case will be taken to a grand jury to determine whether to return an indictment on the federal charges in the Iowa case or other charges, the press release said.
After Babudar was arrested in Oklahoma, ESPN.com ran a long story on him, writing that he was a fixture at tailgates and Chiefs games. Babudar wore a gray wolf costume and had tens of thousands of followers on his ChiefsAholic Twitter account, according to the report.
But the FBI he claims in his affidavit that around the same time, Babudar was robbing banks and credit unions in the Midwest and then, to launder the money, buying and redeeming casino chips in Kansas, Missouri and Illinois and also funding his bank accounts. According to the affidavit, more than $845,000 was stolen from six banks, including about $70,000 from the Iowa institution. About $163,560, covered in red paint, was recovered immediately after one of the robberies.
The affidavit alleges that after the March 2022 robbery in Iowa, Babudar deposited about $70,000 into his credit union money market account in transactions between March 17 and April 12, 2022. But in April, Babudar withdrew and $68,000 and had $65,000 deposited into his account by the casinos, the court document alleges.
In all, Babudar allegedly purchased more than $1.1 million in casino chips and redeemed about $50,000 less between April and December 2022, the affidavit said.
Cameron Smith, an FBI special agent in the bureau’s complex financial crimes unit, writes in the affidavit that they tried to find out whether Babudar had a legitimate source of income. But Babudar has reported no wages in Kansas since 2018 and none in any other state since October 2021, according to the affidavit.
Smith writes that cell phone data places Babudar near the scenes of the robberies. Physical evidence includes gloves found in the suspect’s car that appear to match the gloves worn during the thefts, according to the affidavit.