Disguised Man Who Twice Held Up Same Burlingame Bank Headed to Prison

By Bay City News Service:

A man who wore disguises while trying to twice rob the same Burlingame bank was sentenced to prison time Wednesday after failing to complete a required residential drug treatment program, according to the San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office.

Mitchell Garcia, 58, tried to rob the Bank of America at 400 El Camino Real in April 2013 and returned to rob the same back over a year later in July 2014, prosecutors said.

He was wearing fake dreadlocks, a knit cap and a fake mustache that kept falling off when he walked into the bank on April 24, 2013, and handed a teller a note demanding $3,000 and threatening to shoot the teller if he saw police. As the teller took money out of a drawer, a manager approached her and Garcia fled from the bank without the cash. Police found the hat, wig and mustache on a nearby fence but never found Garcia, prosecutors said.

Last July 5, Garcia returned to the same bank dressed as a woman. He handed a teller an envelope with pink cards that threatened that he had a bomb. He then showed the teller a black-and-white plastic device with a flashing green light. The teller handed Garcia $5,565 in cash and he fled the bank, prosecutors said.

But he didn’t get away long. Police tracked him down at a San Francisco residential hotel a few weeks later and he was arrested.

Investigators connected him to the first robbery using DNA evidence, prosecutors said.

Garcia pleaded no contest on Jan. 13 to felony robbery and attempted robbery charges and was sentenced in February to probation and a residential drug treatment program, prosecutors said.

His defense attorney at the time, Jeff Jackson, said Garcia’s crimes stemmed from his abuse of alcohol and methamphetamine over 40 years and that he was trying to turn his life around.

But prosecutors said Thursday that Garcia only lasted 19 days in the drug treatment program before leaving without permission. He admitted his probation violation Wednesday and Judge Leland Davis sentenced him to three years and eight months in state prison.

RELATED ON PATCH:

• Disguised Man Who Twice Held Up Same Peninsula Bank Facing 5 Years in Prison