David Sartin Jr., 40, of St. Petersburg, Florida, is facing two new federal bank robbery charges after prosecutors say he robbed banks in Largo and St. Petersburg while wearing a realistic prosthetic mask that made him look like an elderly man—the same signature disguise he used during a string of Texas heists a decade earlier.
According to a criminal complaint filed in the Middle District of Florida and announced by U.S. Attorney Gregory W. Kehoe on October 16, 2026, Sartin is accused of hitting a Valley Bank in Largo on August 24 and a Truist Bank in St. Petersburg on September 15. Each count carries a maximum of 20 years in federal prison if he is convicted. At the time of both alleged robberies he was on supervised release after serving more than 10 years for five bank robberies committed in Texas in 2016.
On August 24, around 1:34 p.m., Sartin allegedly drove the area near the Valley Bank at 1125 East Bay Drive in a Toyota FJ Cruiser, the same vehicle tied to his earlier Texas crimes. He parked nearby, switched to a bicycle, and entered the bank wearing the prosthetic “old man” mask with gray facial hair, a straw hat, dark sports jacket, green shirt, and gloves. He approached the teller, demanded cash, specifically ordered “no dye packs,” and left with approximately $2,900. Before fleeing he told the teller “until we meet again.” He rode the bicycle away, returned to the parked Toyota, and drove off. Surveillance cameras from businesses, city vehicles, a police cruiser, and a school bus later helped investigators track the vehicle’s movements.
Three weeks later, on September 15, he allegedly struck the Truist Bank at 6300 Central Avenue in St. Petersburg using a nearly identical disguise: the old-man prosthetic with gray mustache and whiskers, a flat cap, dark-framed glasses, sports jacket, white dress shirt, and gloves. He again demanded cash with no dye packs and took roughly $2,554. Surveillance showed a vehicle associated with him leaving the area of his residence beforehand and returning afterward, with a man matching his description unloading a bicycle. The next day he was observed spray-painting the white roof of the Toyota black. One witness later noted that the robber “did not move like an old man would.”
Sartin was arrested on September 19 on a supervised-release violation warrant issued the day before. Agents took him into custody in the driveway of a residence near his home while he was in the Toyota. Searches of his home, a storage unit he owned, and another residence—including a guest room at his father’s home where he sometimes stayed—turned up the primary prosthetic mask matching the surveillance images, a second prosthetic mask, dark-framed glasses, clothing consistent with the robberies (white dress shirt with black studs, sports coats, flat caps), gloves stained with black paint, a bicycle, bags, a fake plastic handgun, black spray-paint materials, and a clothing receipt dated the day before the second robbery.
Investigators also recovered a handwritten journal dated January 1, 2021, titled “God’s Best friend is a Bank Robber! Uncle Henry Cops and Robbers the world through the eyes of a Bank Robber” and marked “written by: David Sartin.” One page contained a drawing of a character holding up a mask with the handwritten note “My face holding up uncle Henry, looking at it, Face to Face.” An FBI agent wrote in the affidavit that “in all of SARTIN JR.’s bank robberies, he used a mask.”
Sartin’s criminal history stretches back nearly two decades. In 2008 he was convicted of attempted bank robbery in Mississippi after a failed holdup involving Halloween masks and disguises; he received a 38-month sentence. In 2016 he robbed five banks in Texas while wearing a similar elderly-man mask and using the same Toyota FJ Cruiser as a getaway vehicle. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced in February 2018 to 10 years and one month (121 months) in federal prison. His supervised release began on or about May 16, 2025. The Florida robberies occurred roughly 15 months later. He was not under electronic monitoring at the time. The supervised-release violation warrant also referenced traveling outside the district without permission and a separate theft arrest at a Walmart in Lake City, South Carolina, on September 1, 2026.
The FBI investigated the case with assistance from the Largo Police Department and St. Petersburg Police Department. Sartin remains presumed innocent until proven guilty. The repeated use of the same highly distinctive prosthetic disguise, the reuse of the same getaway vehicle, the bicycle-to-vehicle method, and the recovery of the journal have drawn particular attention to the case.
