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ERIE, Pa. — A bank robber nicknamed the "Bucket List Bandit" after he allegedly told a Utah teller he had just four months to live has been sentenced to 11 years in federal prison.
The sentence imposed Thursday on Michael Eugene Brewster works out to a year for each of the 11 bank heists he committed in 10 states last year. Authorities say there's no indication Brewster was really terminally ill.
He pleaded guilty in March to a string of 11 heists that began June 21, 2012 in Arvada, Colo., and ended Sept. 10 with a Huntingdon National Bank heist in Erie.
Brewster was arrested three days later on an FBI warrant for the Erie robbery after he was pulled over for running a stop sign in Oklahoma.
In Utah, Brewster was accused of robbing a Wells Fargo branch in Roy in July 2012. He handed the teller a note that basically said, "Don't mess with me, and I won't mess with you. I need this amount of money, and I have just four months to live," Roy Police Chief Greg Whinham said at the time.
Police believed he had just come from a holdup he staged at a bank in Pocatello, Idaho, and that he held up several other banks before that.
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