BOISE, Idaho — A serial bank robber nicknamed the “Great Outdoors Bandit” has been sentenced to more than five years in prison and ordered to pay $31,000 in restitution. Witnesses described him as outdoorsy.
Josue Daniel Alfaro of Portland, Oregon, received the sentence of five years and three months Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Boise. The sentence will be followed by three years of supervised release.
Bank security cameras caught images of Alfaro, 32, wearing flannel shirts, jeans and a Cabela’s hat, promoting the U.S. retailer that sells hunting, fishing and camping supplies. The robberies and attempted robbery occurred between late 2016 and August 2017.
Authorities arrested Alfaro in August at Los Angeles International Airport trying to board a flight to Brussels, Belgium, with nearly $3,000 of stolen cash in his carry-on bag.
Alfaro pleaded guilty in December to robbing five banks and credit unions in southwestern Idaho and a credit union in Orem, Utah. He also pleaded guilty to attempted robbery at one of the southwestern Idaho banks, which he successfully robbed several months earlier.
The robberies started on Dec. 21, 2016, when he robbed a bank and credit union in southwestern Idaho on the same day, making off with about $5,000.
At Bank of the West in Boise in a March 2017 robbery, according to the plea agreement, he wrote a note that said, “Give me money or I will shoot the teller next to you.” He left with about $3,500.
In May, he robbed the Alpine Credit Union in Orem, Utah, of nearly $13,000.
On Aug. 7, he returned to again rob Bank of the West in Boise, but that robbery failed. The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Boise and Bank of the West on Thursday didn’t immediately respond to inquiries from The Associated Press about why that attempt failed.
Also on Aug. 7, Alfaro traveled to the nearby city of Meridian where he robbed the Clarity Federal Credit Union of $100. That same day, he went to the Meridian’s Pioneer Federal Credit Union and handed an employee a note that said, “Give me all of your hundred dollar bills, I have a gun.” He left with nearly $10,000 in that robbery. Alfaro was arrested six days later.
