{"id":429685,"date":"2026-10-16T17:48:07","date_gmt":"2026-10-16T17:48:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/429685\/"},"modified":"2026-10-16T17:48:07","modified_gmt":"2026-10-16T17:48:07","slug":"st-petersburg-man-charged-in-area-bank-robberies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/429685\/","title":{"rendered":"St. Petersburg man charged in area bank robberies"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text\">ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mysuncoast.com\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.mysuncoast.com\/\">WWSB<\/a>) &#8211; A St. Petersburg man has been charged with robbing two Tampa Bay-area banks, the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office said Monday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">David Sartin, Jr., 40, who has previously served time in prison for bank robbery in Texas, faces up to 20 years in federal prison on each count. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">According to court documents, on Aug. 24, Sartin allegedly robbed a bank in Largo. On Sept. 15, prosecutors say he robbed another bank in St. Petersburg. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">During both robberies, Sartin entered the bank wearing a prosthetic \u201cold man\u201d mask, approached the teller counter and demanded money, instructing the teller not to include dye packs. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Investigators believe Sartin parked his car near the bank, switched to a bicycle and approached the bank. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">After the robbery, Sartin fled on the bicycle, retrieved the vehicle, and drove away. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Video surveillance of Sartin\u2019s home captured footage of a white male resembling Sartin unloading a bicycle from the vehicle and rolling it toward the residence. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The next day, investigators observed Sartin spray paint the vehicle\u2019s white roof black, making the entire vehicle appear black in color.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">A search of Sartin\u2019s home uncovered a bicycle, a blue suit, and a black bag, all similar to the items used during the first robbery. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">A search of Sartin\u2019s storage unit revealed a backpack and laptop bag containing the mask with grey facial hair, dark\u2011framed glasses, and work gloves with black paint on them. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The bags also contained a fake handgun and clothing consistent with the disguise worn during the second robbery.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Agents also searched another house where Sartin occasionally stayed. They found several items, including a prosthetic mask different from the one used in the robberies and a journal titled, \u201cGod\u2019s Best friend is a Bank Robber! Uncle Henry Cops and Robbers the world through the eyes of a Bank Robber.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The journal was dated \u201cJan 1, 2021,\u201d and was \u201cwritten by: David Sartin.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Sartin was on supervised release for a 2018 federal conviction stemming from five bank robberies he had committed, also using a mask, in Texas in 2016. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">In 2008, Sartin was convicted of attempted bank robbery after he and a co-conspirator had tried robbing a bank wearing Halloween masks and disguises.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2026 WWSB. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (WWSB) &#8211; A St. Petersburg man has been charged with robbing two Tampa Bay-area banks,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":429686,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[7894,3030,168780,168779,202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-429685","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-bank","tag-petersburg","tag-rovvery","tag-sartin","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429685","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=429685"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429685\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/429686"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=429685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=429685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=429685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}