'Skateboard Bandit' gets 8 years for bank robberies

A Sacramento man, known to investigators as the "Skateboard Bandit," was sentenced Monday to eight years in federal prison for robbing a series of banks, including a north Modesto bank in 2009, according to the U.S. attorney's office in Sacramento.

Jared Sung Yoon Herdt, 30, pleaded guilty to five bank robberies, including the Wells Fargo Bank at 3424 Dale Road in Modesto on Jan. 5, 2009.

Herdt admitted to robbing five other banks later that year in Springfield, Ore., San Jose, Santa Clara, Orangevale and Rancho Cordova, according to federal prosecutors. The banks in San Jose and Santa Clara were robbed the same day.

Prosecutors said Herdt claimed he had a firearm during the bank robberies, and investigators dubbed him the "Skateboard Bandit" because tellers in some robberies reported that the robber fled on a skateboard.

On April 27, 2010, authorities searched a stolen vehicle recovered in Sunnyvale and found $4,900 in cash, a loaded 9 mm semiautomatic handgun, a skateboard and a receipt for a dentist in Oregon.

Prosecutors said the dentist identified Herdt as the bank robber in surveillance photos.