A string of robberies across the Midwest might just be the result of one of the Kansas City Chief‘s biggest fans.
Known broadly as “ChiefsAholic,” a costume-wearing superfan with a passion for the Chiefs, Xaviar Babudar is facing some serious charges. He was arrested in Lincoln, California on Friday, July 7, and it may be a while before he makes it to his next big game.
Who is ChiefsAholic?
The Kansas City Chiefs have plenty of loyal fans, but perhaps their most well-known is Xaviar Babudar, the 28-year-old at the center of a cross-country crime spree. Far better known by his super fan moniker ChiefsAholic, Babudar has been pictured at countless games, decked out in Chiefs gear and sporting a full-body wolf costume honoring K. C. Wolf, the team’s official mascot.
Babudar wasn’t known for much other than his loyalty and costume game ahead of his early-July arrest. Suspicions of his involvement in a string of robberies across the Midwest changed all of that, however, and quickly made Babudar — and his Chief’s alter-ego — a household name.
What did he do?
Babudar currently faces some pretty serious charges, as authorities investigate his involvement with several 2022 robberies. According to the FBI, Babudar was in California, where he was arrested on July 7, while on the run from authorities. This follows an alleged bank robbery and led to Babudar getting slapped with “one count of bank theft and one count of transporting stolen property across state lines,” according to USA Today.
The robbery Babudar was arrested for wasn’t his first, if court documents are to be believed. An affidavit claims Babudar is connected to several Midwest robberies that occurred between March and December of 2022. The 28-year-old football fan was actually arrested in connection to one of the robberies, in Tulsa County, Oklahoma, and later became a prime suspect in robberies that took place in several other states, including Iowa, Nebraska, Tennessee, Minnesota, and Oklahoma.
Authorities discovered that, between April and December of 2022, Babudar was in possession of around $1 million in chips from casinos across the listed states, which he gradually redeemed over the course of the year. Babudar was initially released on bond back in February, and within a month and a half, he’d reportedly removed his ankle monitor and was on the run. The amount of chips he managed to purchase and later redeem indicates that, at minimum, Babudar stole around $1 million from various banks across the country.
That takes us back to his California arrest, which occurred several months after Babudar first fled authorities. He was spotted, and soon after arrested, in Lincoln, California, and currently faces some steep charges. The 28-year-old will face down his first court appearance at the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California in Sacramento, where the future of his case will be decided.