He was the cop who became a robber.
Now Randy Adair, 73, has revealed the motives behind the bank robbery spree that shocked lawmakers.
‘It was the quick, fast way to solve the problem,’ Adair told Los Angeles magazine journalist Jeff Maysh in an exclusive interview.
‘I started playing video slot machines on the iPad. It only cost five or ten bucks to buy a million points or something like that.’
But coupled with horse-racing losses, Adair was soon broke and struggling to pay the rent.
Ex-LAPD Detective Randy Adair, 73, (pictured) aka ‘the Snowbird Bandit’ has spoken for the first time about his five bank robberies from the federal prison on Terminal Island, California. Adair was a decorated detective with the LAPD (right) who went on a five-month robbing spree in 2015 before he was caught (left)
Adair didn’t wear a disguise when he robbed the banks, just a pair of his wife’s sunglasses and a hat. He was finally captured on July 22, 2015 after his family recognized his face on the TV news
Starting his five-month robbery spree on March 20, 2015, Adair stole up to $9,000 by holding up four banks near his home in Rancho Santa Margarita, California.
He even robbed one branch twice, because it was so ‘easy’, he said.
Adair was finally arrested by the FBI on July 22, 2015, and sentenced to seven years.
Adair’s exclusive interview with Los Angeles magazine journalist Jeff Maysh is published in the September issue of the magazine
Speaking from the federal prison on Terminal Island, California, Adair said he thought he could get away with his crimes.
‘Nobody will ever know,’ he recalled thinking, ‘And then right back in the soup again.
‘Another month or so later, when you get right down to the wire, they’re gonna start saying, “Where’s the rent?” and you’re gonna have to tell the family, “I lost this bet over here.” I had a lot pouring down on me like that.’
Adair took a revolver into the banks and passed a note to tellers.
‘I thought that if they thought I had a weapon, they would not look at me,’ he said.
For months the FBI had no leads, and nicknamed him the ‘Snowbird Bandit’ because of his age and white hair.
Once his arrest was made public, Adair’s remarkable career in law enforcement was revealed.
Despite Adair’s police pension, he and his wife had to unload their house in a short sale in 1990, walking away with nothing. The IRS pursued them for $60,000, and marshals arrived to evict the family from the rental home they’d moved into. Adair is pictured at a family function
It was his wife Susan (right) and his daughter Kateri (right) who worked with the FBI to trap him in 2015
Born in 1944, Adair graduated from the LAPD academy at the top of his class and was soon promoted to detective with the LAPD’s Metropolitan Division, an elite mobile crime-fighting unit.
One of its primary occupations was catching bank robbers.
‘At one time I was involved in seven bank robbery arrests,’ Adair recalled.
As a rookie cop, Adair was called to the scene of Robert Kennedy’s assassination in June 1968, and helped to arrest the killer, Sirhan Sirhan.
‘We got to the pantry, and you could see that Kennedy was down on the floor,’ Adair recalled.
‘He’s lying face up, and I saw fluid, you know, from the head injury—brain matter looks kinda like snot, you know?’
Adair says he then helped Kennedy’s wife Ethel, and astronaut John Glenn to find the Central Receiving Hospital in Los Angeles, where he saw Kennedy’s body on a gurney.
Adair graduated from the LAPD academy at the top of his class and was soon promoted to detective with the LAPD’s Metropolitan Division, an elite mobile crime-fighting unit. One of its primary occupations was catching bank robbers
At age 65, after suffering an aneurysm, Adair endured a nine-hour surgery that nearly killed him. In 2012 he developed a serious bacterial infection and he said doctors only gave him a five percent chance to live. Then, in 2013, Adair survived five heart attacks
In a distinguished career, Adair was commended for saving 25 people from a burning building; he caught numerous bank robbers; and tracked down the killer of a four-year-old girl, whose body was found stuffed in a refrigerator.
In a 21-year long career, Adair spent much of his time working in LA’s crime-ravaged Rampart area.
There, the stress of investigating homicides soon weighed on the detective.
Adair admitted that he became an alcoholic: ‘I started sneak drinking…I wouldn’t drink on the job,’ he said. ‘I didn’t go out and party with the guys. I wasn’t a bar drinker.’
Once he retired, money and health issues became a constant problem.
Despite Adair’s police pension, he and his wife had to unload their house in a short sale in 1990, walking away with nothing. The IRS pursued them for $60,000, and marshals arrived to evict the family from the rental home they’d moved into.
At age 65, after suffering an aneurysm, Adair endured a nine-hour surgery that nearly killed him.
He suffered another blow in 2012, when he developed a serious bacterial infection.
‘They gave me a five percent chance to live,’ he said. Then, in 2013, Adair survived five heart attacks.
In a distinguished career, Adair was commended for saving 25 people from a burning building; he caught numerous bank robbers; and tracked down the killer of a four-year-old girl, whose body was found stuffed in a refrigerator
Adair spent much of his time working in LA’s crime-ravaged Rampart area. There, the stress of investigating homicides soon weighed on the detective. Adair admitted he became an alcoholic
It was his health and money problems that drove him to commit the robberies, Adair said.
The former cop didn’t wear a disguise when he robbed the banks, just a pair of his wife’s sunglasses and a hat.
His police experience helped him know how to get away fast. He described his speedy technique as: ‘Zip. Bam. Boom. In. Gone.’
As Adair sped away from one robbery in his SUV, he recalled seeing flashing red lights zooming past him. He told his former colleagues: ‘Have a nice day, guys!’
Adair was finally captured after his family recognized his face on the TV news.
‘I’m [in prison] because of what I did,’ Adair said, ‘My family turned me in.’
It was his wife Susan and his daughter Kateri who worked with the FBI to trap him, in a bizarre operation that culminated in his arrest outside an Orange County family restaurant.
Once he was in custody the ‘Snowbird Bandit’ told FBI agents: ‘I’m cooked.’
Adair’s family believes that his seven-year prison term is like a death sentence, due to this failing health.
He is also caged in the prison’s general population, which is dangerous for a former police officer.
However Adair is keeping busy by writing his memoirs, and has received interest from film and television companies about his life story.
He described his life as: ‘seventy-one years of goodness and four months of idiot.’
The September edition of Los Angeles is out now.