Elizabeth Merrill
Elizabeth Merrill
ESPN Senior WriterElizabeth Merrill is a senior writer for ESPN.com and ESPN The Magazine. She previously wrote for The Kansas City Star and The Omaha World-Herald.
David Purdum
David Purdum
ESPN Staff Writer Joined ESPN in 2014 Journalist covering gambling industry since 2008Nov 19, 2023, 08:12 AM ET
In December, a bank robbery in a small Oklahoma town made national headlines after Xaviar Babudar, a popular Kansas City Chiefs superfan, was arrested and charged. Known as Chiefsaholic, a fixture at Kansas City games in a gray wolf suit, Babudar was accused of pointing a black pistol at a bank teller and fleeing with $150,000 from the Tulsa Teachers Credit Union in Bixby, Oklahoma. He pleaded not guilty.
In March, one month after Babudar was released on bond, he removed his ankle monitor and went on the run. Four months later, he was apprehended by the FBI in California. Upon his arrest, he was accused of a string of previously unsolved robberies in the Midwest.
An ESPN investigation uncovered that much of what Babudar posted about himself on his popular social media accounts was not true, and that he and his family had no fixed address and a long history of petty crimes and
