FBI provides update on decade-old San Francisco SantaCon bank bandit case

SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s San Francisco office is providing a huge update on a decade-old case where a man dressed as St. Nick robbed a downtown bank during a citywide SantaCon pub crawl.

The mystery started on Saturday, Dec. 14, 2014 when hundreds of revelers dressed up as Santa took over San Francisco’s streets.

Authorities said a man in a red and white suit walked into a bank on the 400 block of Sutter Street, just north of Union Square, around 1 p.m. The man handed the teller a note, took an undisclosed amount of cash, and slinked out into a crowd of Santa Clauses, never to be seen again.

The suspect was described as a man in his 40s or 50s, about 5 feet 11 inches tall, wearing a red and white Santa suit.

KRON4 reached out to FBI’s San Francisco office in December 2024, around the 10th anniversary of the robbery, but was told, “We don’t have any updates.”

This week, the FBI gave a new update on the case.

The case is closed and unable to be prosecuted due to the statute of limitations for bank robbery under federal law.
Cameron Polan, FBI San Francisco

With the investigation officially wrapped, it appears that the bandit may have gotten away after all.