An elderly Florida man charged with the armed robbery of an Arizona credit union that capture national media attention will remain in federal custody.
During a detention hearing Tuesday, a U.S. District court magistrate judge in Tucson ordered Robert Francis Krebs be held in jail pending his trial. Federal authorities determined Krebs to be a "risk of nonappearance" for future court hearings if he were to be released on bail.
The case attracted national headlines after Tucson police reported Krebs was 80 years old. Police noted that it was very rare for a man of his age to be charged with armed bank robbery.
However, federal documents show that Krebs of Daytona Beach is 75 years old.
On Jan. 12, Krebs walked into a branch of the $154 million Pyramid Federal Credit Union with a black BB handgun and stole more than $8,000. The next day, police received a tip that the suspect was at a hotel where he was arrested without incident. Police, who initially thought Krebs was in his late 60s, recovered $7,500 of the credit union's money.
The Associated Press reported Krebs served more than 30 years in prison for robbing a Florida bank in the 1980s. Additionally, he was convicted in 1966 for embezzling $72,000 from a Chicago bank where he worked as a teller.
He was also suspect, along with three other men, for an alleged $1.5 million jewel theft and a $3.3 million robbery of the First National Bank of Arizona in 1981, according to an Associated Press article that was published in the New York Times that year. In 1988, however, Krebs was no longer a suspect in the bank heist, according to the AP.
Krebs was reportedly released from a Florida prison last summer and allegedly violated probation because he didn't inform authorities of his whereabouts, according to media reports.
If convicted for the charge of bank robbery with the use of a dangerous weapon, Krebs could face up to 25 years in prison and a fine of $250,000, federal prosecutors said.
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Peter Strozniak
Credit Union Times reporter covering credit union operations, fraud, M&As, leagues, business continuity, and breaking news.
