"Penguin Bandit" of Denver sentenced to over 13 years for bank robberies

A 42-year-old Denver man, whose distinctive walk earned him the name "the penguin bandit" by the FBI, was sentenced to over 13 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to five counts of bank robbery.

In that plea deal, Samuel Richard Ruthstrom admitted to robbing four banks in Denver and trying to rob a fifth. In those robberies, Ruthstrom would give bank tellers a handwritten note threatening violence if they didn't give him cash.

"People are going to get shot," he wrote in one note demanding $10,000, according to evidence from the FBI. If the teller gave him a stack of money with a tracker in it, he said he'd start shooting people. "Move like your life depends on it, because it does - 60 seconds or less - let's go!"

Ruthstrom was on parole and living at an inpatient facility at the time of the robberies. According to federal investigators, he stole a box truck to commit three of the robberies.

"Robbing banks is not a career – it's a series of crimes that will net you serious federal prison time. That is what this defendant learned once the FBI Rocky Mountain Safe Streets Task Force tracked him down," said FBI Denver Special Agent in Charge Mark Michalek. "The FBI will continue to work with partners like the Denver Police Department and Metro Denver CrimeStoppers to identify and apprehend violent criminals."

Among the Denver banks Ruthstrom was accused of robbing before getting caught were the Zing Credit Union on Jan. 2, the Canvas Credit Union on South University Boulevard, and the Canvas Credit Union on North Colorado Boulevard, all in early January.

Ruthstrom was arrested in February.

Investigators gave him the nickname they did "because of his distinctive gait/abnormal walk that has been described as a waddle.'"