‘A’s Bandit’ Suspect Arrested After Holdup

Police arrested a man Friday they believe is the notorious “A’s Bandit.” The preppie, clean-cut criminal confounded authorities for nearly three months by robbing 29 banks of more than $25,000 and in the process setting a record for most city bank heists.

David Mailey, 21, was taken into custody at 4:15 p.m. after 10 law enforcement officers surrounded him in the courtyard of a University City apartment complex where they believe he had been staying.

Authorities said Mailey was arrested as a suspect in the 1:40 p.m. robbery of a San Diego Trust & Savings branch at 7708 Regents Road in University City. But he is being investigated in connection with a string of 28 other holdups stretching from downtown San Diego to Del Mar.

Mailey was being held in the downtown federal Metropolitan Correctional Center Friday night. The FBI and San Diego police scheduled a press conference Monday to add more details to the arrest.

“From all indications, his manner closely resembles that of the A’s series robber,” said Bill Robinson, a spokesman for the San Diego Police Department. “If this is the guy, robbery detectives will rest a little easier.”

The “A’s Bandit,” so named because of the Oakland Athletics baseball cap he wore during the first seven robberies, became something of a cause celebre in the city during the past three months as the crimes continued.

A song was written about him. A newspaper devoted a story to his taste in clothing. On Friday, the A’s Bandit case was featured on National Public Radio and “The Osgood File,” the CBS radio program hosted by Charles Osgood.

Curiousity focused on his youthful looks, fashionable dress and casual stroll as he calmly passed tellers a handwritten note and then looked squarely at security cameras as he made his escapes.

At various times, he appeared in a white sweat shirt, a white jacket, a gray jacket, a black denim jacket, a brown suit, an olive-green suit and flowered shirt with a dark riding cap, blue jeans, white tennis shoes and cowboy boots. The robber always wore sunglasses.

Mailey was described as white, 6 feet tall, thin, clean-shaven, with dark brown hair.

Immediately after Friday’s holdup, in which the robber made off with $496, two people--not employees of the bank--chased him through the bank parking lot. He ran to a nearby apartment complex, where his car was parked. He stopped briefly at the car before running off again.

The 1990 silver, four-door Chevrolet, was registered to Agency Rent-a-Car. A manager there said he had spoken to the FBI about the incident but declined to comment further.

Witnesses said they last saw Mailey run through the apartment complex and slip down a dirt embankment fronting Interstate 5 opposite the La Jolla Village Square shopping center.

In the meantime, about 40 law enforcement officers set up a command post near the bank on Palmilla Drive, cordoned off part of the street and began searching the area. A police helicopter circled for several hours.

It is believed that authorities discovered Mailey’s address through the rental car company and made their way to the Trieste Villa apartments on Mahaila Avenue, less than a mile from the bank.

Police said Mailey was walking near his apartment in a courtyard when officers approached him. He began to run, but then spotted another group of officers coming at him from the opposite direction, witnesses said.

Police spokesman Dave Cohen said Mailey offered no other resistance. Witnesses said he was wearing brown pants, a burgundy shirt and brown shoes--but no sunglasses--when he was captured.

“The police had their guns out and all that. He didn’t struggle,” said Jennifer Lawrie, a resident of the complex and witness to the arrest. “They said ‘Police!’ and they just got him from both sides.”

San Diego police and FBI agents had been staking out various areas of the city for weeks in hopes of catching the robber. Of the 29 holdups to which he is linked, the bandit struck most often on Fridays.

In this case, like the others, nobody saw the robber carrying a gun, and the note he handed the teller was similar to those in the other robberies.

Police had predicted that the bandit would eventually be caught and speculated that he might have a drug habit. Authorities said little about Mailey on Friday other than that he had lived at two San Diego addresses and may have lived in New York at one time.

Late Friday, law enforcement officers were waiting for a search warrant so they could enter his Mailey’s apartment, situated in an upscale, palm tree-lined complex with two swimming pools and a clubhouse. Apartment managers declined to comment on Mailey.

Most of the A’s Bandit series of holdups occurred near freeways, mostly in the Pacific Beach and Ocean Beach areas. He got as much as $1,200 at one bank and as little as $300 at another. On March 29, he robbed banks 20 miles apart in Ocean Beach, Pacific Beach, La Jolla and Kearny Mesa, all within two hours.

One bank manager said the bandit “looked like he belongs at UC San Diego” after he walked past her desk at the Imperial Savings branch in La Jolla.

“He looks like anyone’s neighbor or son, and that works to his advantage,” she said.

Times staff writer Bernice Hirabayashi contributed to this story.