Fugitive Chiefs superfan arrested for links to robberies
A Kansas City Chiefs superfan who had been on the run for four months after being charged in a December bank robbery has been arrested in California and accused in a criminal complaint of perpetrating a string of robberies in the Midwest, according to court documents unsealed Monday.
Federal authorities arrested Xaviar Babudar, 28, near Sacramento on Friday. Babudar has been charged with bank theft and transporting stolen property across state lines for a previously unsolved March 2022 robbery in Iowa. The FBI has also linked him to six other unsolved robberies and attempted robberies of banks or credit unions from April 2022 through December in Iowa, Minnesota, Tennessee and Nebraska. In total, authorities say Babudar stole more than $800,000.
Babudar will appear in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California in Sacramento on Monday afternoon. A federal grand jury will hear the case. The two federal charges each carry a sentence of up to 10 years in prison, according to the affidavit.
Babudar's cellphone was placed in the same locations as the previously unsolved bank robberies and attempted robberies, according to an affidavit filed in support of the complaint. Authorities allege that he purchased and redeemed more than $1 million in chips from various casinos in Missouri, Kansas and Illinois between April and December 2022.
Babudar was known on social media and among the Chiefs fan base as "Chiefsaholic," a die-hard fan who dressed in a gray wolf suit for games and often was shown on TV. He was first arrested Dec. 16 in Oklahoma and charged in a robbery of the Tulsa Teachers Credit Union. He pleaded not guilty and was released on bond in February before removing his ankle monitor and disappearing in March.
Tulsa-area bondsman Michael Lloyd, who said he has been looking for Babudar since then, told ESPN that he paid an $80,000 bond forfeiture fee on Friday, just minutes before he received a call from the FBI that Babudar had been apprehended.
An ESPN investigation found that Babudar had a troubled upbringing, a history of legal trouble and much of what he posted about himself on social media was untrue. He often posted screenshots of betting slips, including $5,000 bets on the Chiefs to win this year's Super Bowl and quarterback Patrick Mahomes to win NFL regular-season MVP. Both were winners. In court documents filed after his December arrest, Babudar listed himself as homeless, and he has not had any consistent income since October 2021, according to the FBI affidavit.
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