A Florida man already locked up for bank jobs in an elderly disguise is accused of running the same old-man mask play again while still on supervised release.
David Sartin Jr., 40, of St. Petersburg is accused of hitting two Florida banks while wearing a prosthetic mask made to look like an elderly man, federal prosecutors say.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida announced the latest allegations on Friday. Prosecutors say Sartin demanded cash with no dye packs, then fled with thousands of dollars, and that the method looks a lot like a prior spree that already put him in federal prison.
The US Sun reported the case details drawn from the criminal complaint and the prosecutors’ account.
Prosecutors say the first alleged robbery came on August 24 at a bank in Largo.
According to the complaint account, Sartin drove near the bank, parked, switched to a bicycle, and went inside in the elderly-man disguise. He allegedly walked out with $2,900 and left tellers a parting line: “until we meet again.”
"until we meet again."
He then fled on the bicycle before getting back to a vehicle and driving off, the complaint account states.
Just three weeks later, on September 15, prosecutors say he struck again at a bank in St. Petersburg and took $2,554.
Surveillance around that second job allegedly showed a vehicle leaving his home before the robbery and returning after. Investigators say a white man resembling Sartin unloaded a bicycle. The next day, they say they watched him spray-paint the vehicle’s white roof black.
Investigators later searched Sartin’s home, a storage unit, and a property where he occasionally stayed.
At the home, they recovered a bicycle, a blue suit, and a black bag resembling gear used in the first robbery, prosecutors say.
The storage unit search allegedly produced bags holding an elderly man’s prosthetic mask with gray facial hair, dark-framed glasses, work gloves stained with black paint, clothing matching the robber on surveillance, and a fake handgun.
At the other property, investigators say they found a second prosthetic mask and a 2021 journal marked “written by: David Sartin.”
The journal’s title, as reported from the recovery, was blunt about the theme:
"God’s Best friend is a Bank Robber! Uncle Henry Cops and Robbers the world through the eyes of a Bank Robber."
One handwritten line in the journal, as reported, read: “My face holding up uncle Henry, looking at it, Face to Face.”
This is not Sartin’s first turn in federal court.
Prosecutors say he pulled five bank heists in Texas in 2016 while wearing an elderly man’s mask and using the same getaway-vehicle approach later alleged in Florida. That case brought a 2018 federal conviction and a sentence of just over 10 years. He was on supervised release when the new Florida robberies allegedly happened.
Even earlier, in 2008, he took a federal conviction for attempted bank robbery after he and an accomplice tried a job in Halloween masks and other disguises.
The new announcement does not spell out every charge statute or the full docket in the public article used here. What it does show is a repeat pattern: disguise, teller demand, quick cash, and a getaway plan that investigators say they can now match to recovered gear.
Supervised release is supposed to keep repeat federal offenders on a short leash after prison. When the same mask-and-bicycle play shows up again, the public gets a clear look at what soft follow-through costs ordinary banks and the tellers stuck at the counter.
