Meet Today's Stupid Bank Robber: Kenneth Lyle Spangle
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| Spangle: Should have used his ears for flight in heist getaway |
Spangle dreamed of being a successful bank robber.
But he's terrible at the crime and should have found another line of work to screw up.
Nabbed within minutes of his August 12, BB-gun robbery by on-the-ball Placentia cop Jason Reger, Spangle planned the Bank of America heist but forgot to tell everyone inside the financial institution to get on the floor--a failure that allowed bank occupants to precisely describe his getaway path to police, according to the FBI.
Worse, even if Spangle had managed to evade a swarm of arriving police officers, he wouldn't have had much to celebrate.
The bank teller drawer he robbed had "a bunch of ones," according to his arrest report.
Now, he can't buy that pickup truck he craved.
If eventually convicted, Spangle--who was born in 1951 and is a veteran criminal I've dubbed The Elephant Ears Bandit--faces a lengthy voyage to a federal prison.
Court records show that he pleaded guilty in 1996 to bank robbery charges and received a 57-month sentence. When he emerged from custody he violated his parole. He returned to the slammer for another two years. That punishment caused him to send his probation officer a letter stating that he planned to kill his federal judge. In response, he was sent back again to prison for 72 more months.
He is currently being held inside the Santa Ana Jail without access to bail.
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