'Windy City Bandit' Pleads Guilty to Anaheim Bank Robbery

LOS ANGELES, CA - The suspected "Windy City Bandit," who was charged with Chase bank heists in Los Angeles and Orange counties, entered into a plea deal Wednesday.

Ryan Thomas See, 25, of La Palma, entered his plea to a single bank robbery count stemming from an Oct. 5 heist at a Chase branch in Anaheim.

He was initially charged with a bank robbery in Orange on Oct. 13 and a Santa Fe Springs holdup two days later.

U.S. District Judge R. Gary Klausner set sentencing for Aug. 8. The bank robbery count carries a possible maximum penalty of 20 years in federal prison.

See was arrested Oct. 15 while trying to escape from the Santa Fe Springs bank robbery in an Uber car he had reserved. Police said he passed a teller a demand note that indicated he had a bomb that he would detonate if police were alerted.

The teller handed over nearly $6,000.

"Moments later, a Whittier police officer saw the suspect getting into a vehicle, which had been parked in front of a vacant residence not far from the bank," according to a police statement. "A high-risk stop was initiated and the suspect was taken into custody."

Investigators believe See is the "Windy City Bandit," named for a hat the robber wore emblazoned with the Chicago Bears logo.

After his arrest, upon being confronted with bank surveillance photos from the Orange County robberies, See stated that "he was the person in all three of the bank surveillance photographs," FBI Agent Steve May wrote in the 2015 criminal complaint.

See claimed he committed the robberies because he owed a "Mexican guy" money for drugs, but did not know man's name, according to the complaint.

--City News Service, photo courtesy of the FBI