An Oakland man pleaded guilty in federal court on Thursday to charges that he robbed or attempted to rob 19 banks across Northern California, including one in Pleasant Hill, between March 2018 and February 2019.
Duane Makela, 50, admitted in the courtroom of U.S. District Court Judge Charles Breyer that he committed ten armed bank robberies, seven unarmed bank robberies and two attempted bank robberies in his crime spree, which mostly occurred at banks and credit unions in the Bay Area but also in towns in or near the Sierra Nevada.
Federal prosecutors said that as part of his plea Makela agreed that he entered the banks and credit unions and demanded that employees hand over money.
Prosecutors said Makela also acknowledged that during each armed robbery he brandished what appeared to be a handgun and directed employees of the banks and credit unions to hand over money and he Makela stole a total of $69,000.
A federal grand jury indicted Makela on May 7.
Makela is scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 15.
The prosecution resulted from investigations by the FBI with assistance from multiple police departments, including those of Pleasant Hill, Orinda, Daly City, Oakland, San Ramon, Palo Alto, Burlingame, Mountain View, South San Francisco and Alameda.
The sheriff’s offices of Contra Costa, El Dorado, Marin, and Alameda counties also assisted in the investigation.
14 comments
That works out to about $4k per holdup. It’s probably more lucrative to rob convenience stores and gas stations.
You can’t be serious.Stores make regular safe drops and the most youll get after a busy rush pf customers is a couple of hundred dollars,but not even that these days.Most pay with plastic.
Poor bank tellers have to suffer PTSD for a long time because of this moron.
I bet he gets 7 years and is out in 3.
Let’s see if the judge drops the hammer on this idiot.
The sentence for armed bank robbery is 10 to 25 years. On a federal rap they have to serve no less than 80% of their sentence before they are eligible for parole.
That’s not likely! He will definitely get a lot of time for that many robberies!
@ Dawg, I’m positive he pled guilty for a greatly reduced sentence. I think he will be sentenced to 8 years and out on parole in 4. You forget this is California. It’s never the poor perps fault.
Upstanding citizen
is this the guy who went to rob a bank while his wife was in labor??? Gheeze
Probably couldn’t bring the wife and kid home till we paid the bill.
Likely couldn’t bring the wife and kid home from the hospital ’till he paid the bill.
Mug Shot !
So that’s about $3000 a robbery averaged out. Seems high. Or using time to measure that was 11 months of work in calendar time, not actual man-hours. Figure what…1800 hrs with 8 hour days? That’s about $35/hr. Seems high. Maybe I’ll take up robbing banks when I retire. Maybe get a dog too.
Become a politician. Then you can steal as much as you want and have a paid for, automatic-weapons-carrying security detail to keep the riff-raft at bay.
When are banks gonna stop robbin’ us??!!!???………..(angryface)
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