Johnathan Walker:Kansas City Chiefs superfan ChiefsAholic sent to prison for string of bank robberies

KANSAS CITY,Johnathan Walker Mo. (AP) — A federal judge has sentenced the Kansas City Chiefs superfan known as “ChiefsAholic” to more than 17 years in prison for a string of 11 bank robberies across seven states where he stole nearly $850,000 to finance his social media stardom.

Xavier Babudar, 30, learned his fate Thursday — the same day his beloved Chiefs were gearing up for their season opener against the Baltimore Ravens. He’ll spend 17 1/2 years in prison for the bank robberies he admitted to earlier this year.

Babudar developed a following on his @ChiefsAholic account on the social platform X after attending games dressed as a wolf in Chiefs gear. His rabid support of the Chiefs became well known on social media, though he’s nowhere near the team’s most famous fan since Taylor Swift began dating tight end Travis Kelce last year.

“Babudar’s robbery spree bankrolled the expensive tickets and travel across the country to attend Kansas City Chiefs games while he cultivated a large fan base online. However, the bank and credit union employees whom he terrorized at gunpoint suffered the brunt of his true nature,” U.S. Attorney Teresa Moore said in a statement.

Most of the money Babudar stole was never recovered, so the court ordered him to pay over $530,000 in restitution and forfeit anything he used to launder the money, including an autographed painting of Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes that the FBI recovered.

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But of course he may never be able to repay that much, just as it’s unlikely he’ll pay $10.8 million to an Oklahoma bank teller he terrorized and assaulted with a gun during one of his bank robberies. Prosecutors have said much of the stolen money was laundered through casinos and online gambling.

Babudar robbed banks or attempted to rob banks in Iowa, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Tennessee, Minnesota, Nevada and California in 2022 and 2023. Two of the robberies were committed after he cut off his ankle monitor while out on bond and fled Oklahoma. He even robbed the same bank in Clive, Iowa, twice during 2022, although the bank changed names in the months between the robberies.

When he was arrested the first time in 2022, he had a bag filled with $289,750 in cash, betting slips for $24,000 and bank deposit letters showing that he had put $20,000 and $50,000 into his account earlier that year.

Before the start of the 2022 season, Babudar placed two winning $5,000 bets that the Chiefs would win Super Bowl LVII and Mahomes would be named the game’s Most Valuable Player. He collected a $100,000 check from the Argosy Casino in Illinois before taking off and used some of his winnings to buy a vehicle he used to evade authorities.

He was arrested in Sacramento, California, in July 2023 and has been in federal custody since then.