Picture Illustration by Erin O’Flynn/The Each day Beast/Courtesy of Ridwaan Domingo, Pixabay, OpenStreetMap contributors/Wikimedia Commons
Ridwaan Domingo awoke the morning of June 3, 2002, to the sound of FBI brokers banging on his door.
Domingo was a U.Okay.-raised, boarding-school-educated son of a profitable South African businessman. He’d relocated to the States to work for his father’s firm greater than a decade earlier, which is the place he met Patrice, the attractive blonde sleeping subsequent to him.
Collectively that they had a daughter, Angelique, whom they affectionately known as “Chummy,” and lived in a sunny yellow home on 6.5 acres of land, surrounded by 600 orange timber. Their life in San Diego—”America’s most interesting metropolis,” as Domingo known as it, and not using a hint of irony—appeared near-perfect.
However Domingo—and the FBI brokers standing on his porch—knew one thing nobody else in the home did: The 36-year-old pc programmer was additionally the infamous “Simple Rider bandit,” needed for robbing 12 banks in Southern California.
The arrival of the FBI brokers that morning set off a sequence of occasions that may hold the household aside for years. Twenty years later, Domingo is out of jail, determined to reunite together with his spouse and youngster, and telling his aspect of the story—together with the shocking cause he went from financial institution employee to financial institution robber.
Picture Illustration by Erin O’Flynn/The Each day Beast/Courtesy of Ridwaan Domingo, Pixabay
Domingo was born in Cape City, South Africa, in 1964, to Black dad and mom raised throughout apartheid. He nonetheless maintains the marble-mouthed Afrikaans accent, blended with a tender British lilt. That is as a result of, on the age of three, the biochemical firm the place his father labored relocated them to Abergavenny, Wales, the place they lived a comparatively regular middle-class life. On his new podcast, Time With Mr. Reed, he describes it as a “fantastic childhood” with out “a care on this planet.”
That's, till a number of years later, when Domingo’s father give up the biotech firm and began his personal agency, Biozyme, skyrocketing the household to monetary success. Impulsively, Domingo claims, he was residing in a “huge” Edwardian home with a pool and driving imported BMWs. Beforehand public-school educated, he was abruptly enrolled within the top-tier boarding faculty Monmouth Faculty for Boys. “That was simply Life Of The Wealthy and Well-known, so far as I used to be involved,” Domingo mentioned of his new life-style on the podcast.
Even early on, Domingo had a penchant for bother. Though he confirmed educational promise and made home prefect, the 17-year-old was suspended from Monmouth for leaving campus whereas on probation. His dad and mom revoked his driving privileges after he flipped their Renault 5 Turbo dashing down a rustic highway that very same yr. Additional upsetting his dad and mom, he enrolled in a technical institute as a substitute of a four-year college after highschool and dropped out after two years.
Nonetheless, Domingo’s father wasn’t prepared to surrender on him. In 1986, when Domingo was 21, his father provided him a job digitizing Biozyme’s information programs. The job got here with an affordable wage and relocation to sunny San Diego. Domingo readily accepted.
The Love Story
Domingo says he slot in properly in SoCal, regardless of his humorous accent and stuffy British English. He made two shut mates on the native gymnasium, which is the place he additionally met Patrice, his “beautiful California blonde.” Patrice was 5 years older, with three children from a earlier marriage. However regardless of “all these unfavorable components,” he says on the podcast, he shortly fell in love. The 2 bought married in 1993, in a Little Church of the West marriage ceremony in Las Vegas, and moved into the charming, orange-tree-studded house she’d shared along with her earlier husband.
That’s when issues bought sophisticated. Domingo says his father provided to pay him a full-time wage whereas he obtained his diploma at Cal State San Marcos, with the situation that he return to work on the household enterprise when he was finished. However when Domingo graduated, he knowledgeable his father he wouldn't relocate to the U.Okay. His father knowledgeable him he would not have a job. Out of the blue, Domingo’s nepo-baby wage was gone.
Across the similar time, Domingo and his spouse determined to attempt for a child. They have been each younger and wholesome, however Patrice had undergone a tubal ligation after her third youngster. Domingo says docs assured them they'd be capable to conceive simply utilizing in-vitro fertilization, then a brand new expertise through which the egg and sperm are mixed outdoors the womb after which implanted into the uterus. The price? Upwards of $15,000 a cycle.
Domingo took a raft of strange jobs to cowl the payments, however by no means appeared to search out his footing. He and his spouse began a profitable lunch supply service that ended after a bigger firm got here down from Los Angeles and put them out of enterprise. Domingo tried promoting automobiles and even rising weed in an try to boost cash. At one level, he misplaced $85,000—together with $20,000 he’d borrowed from his father—in a failed try at day buying and selling.
On the similar time, the IVF payments have been stacking up. Regardless of Patrice’s well being and youth, the therapies merely weren’t working. Docs put her on the best doable doses of hormonal remedy, Domingo says—thick needles he administered a number of instances per day, full of medicine that made her really feel languid and sick—however she by no means bought pregnant.
“I used to be by no means given a definitive cause as to why we weren’t attaining success, so I believed, ‘Dammit, we're going to make this work,’” Domingo informed The Each day Beast. “I needed to have that manifestation of Patrice and my love.”
The couple tried 9 rounds of IVF, even visiting specialists in Los Angeles and the U.Okay., earlier than Patrice lastly bought pregnant with Angelique. By that point, they have been $250,000 in debt.
Picture Illustration by Erin O’Flynn/The Each day Beast/Courtesy of Ridwaan Domingo, Pixabay
Domingo says he by no means even considered robbing a financial institution till he began working at one.
In 1999, he accomplished a six-week pc programming course and was employed to the IT division on the San Diego County Credit score Union. The pay was regular, however not sufficient—the couple needed to take out three mortgages on their house and pawn their marriage ceremony bands to assist repay their money owed. Patrice, a former aerobics teacher and gymnasium supervisor, was so sick from the hormones that she couldn’t work to assist assist them. At one level, Domingo says, he was so determined he thought-about suicide.
As a part of his new job orientation, Domingo says, he acquired formal coaching on what to do if the financial institution was ever robbed: Do because the robber tells you, put the cash within the bag, and don’t ask questions. In his recollection, the purpose was to get the robber out of the financial institution as shortly as doable with out escalating the scenario. “It’s not your cash, in essence, it is not even actually the financial institution’s cash,” a financial institution government tells trainees throughout a re-enactment in Domingo’s podcast. “Simply give them the cash.”
Domingo was agonizing over payments one night time when he noticed his coaching handbook on his desk. What began as a joking thought, he says, shortly developed right into a severe thought: You can rob a financial institution. He says he assumed nobody would get harm—in any case, they'd all been instructed by the financial institution to conform together with his instructions. And he’d solely need to do it as soon as to get the $10,000 to cowl that month’s payments.
So Domingo hatched a plan. He scouted the proper location: a Washington Mutual department about 20 minutes from his workplace, positioned close to a three-way intersection that may make for a straightforward getaway. He printed out a requirement letter, asking for cash in lots of, fifties, tens and twenties, so he would not have to talk to the teller in his distinctive accent. Then he grabbed what was to change into his signature: Patrice’s striped bike helmet, a purple herring that may have police trying to find a biker whereas he sped away in a automobile.
The Caper
The primary theft went off and not using a hitch. The teller learn his be aware and positioned the cash within the bag, and Domingo walked off calmly and drove proper again to work. He modified again into his go well with and tie within the automobile. In his telling, nobody within the workplace observed something was amiss. When he counted the cash later, it was precisely what he wanted: somewhat greater than $10,000.
So, regardless of telling himself this was a one-time deal, Domingo did it once more. And once more, and once more, and once more. In line with a prison criticism filed by the U.S. Lawyer’s Workplace in South California, Domingo robbed 9 banks over the course of a yr, making off with greater than $64,000. (Domingo says it was really 12 banks, however that some have been in different jurisdictions.)
There have been mishaps alongside the best way, lots of which he recounts in his podcast, just like the time a dye pack exploded in his cash bag, blasting pepper spray in his eye and leaving all of his cash a scarlet-letter purple. (He says he laundered the cash with bleach and informed the teller who deposited the money that it was stained by moist swimming trunks.) As soon as, he even picked up his daughter from daycare and left her sleeping within the again seat whereas he robbed a financial institution.
By July 2002, he’d gotten cocky and went again to the identical Washington Mutual department he’d robbed in his first heist. In line with the prison criticism, the teller noticed his well-worn demand letter and realized she was being held up by the identical man who’d burgled her a yr earlier. She handed him the cash however signaled to the safety guard, who noticed the bandit carefully as he walked out. A passerby later informed police he’d seen a person matching Domingo’s description stroll to the parking zone, get right into a white Ford pickup, and drive away.
Picture Illustration by Erin O’Flynn/The Each day Beast/Courtesy of Ridwaan Domingo, Pixabay
What Domingo didn’t know was that his theft at his first financial institution location would even be his final.
The FBI had been searching the thief since at the least October 2000, after his fourth suspected theft. Matt Brown, the FBI agent assigned to the case on the time, informed The Each day Beast that Domingo stood out for the variety of banks he robbed—most suspects solely robbed 4 or 5—and for nearly all the time focusing on Washington Mutuals. That and, in fact, the distinctive white bike helmet he carried, for which they dubbed him the “Simple Rider bandit.”
Hoping to catch him within the act, the FBI despatched out a discover to space banks with photographs of the suspect from financial institution surveillance cameras. In line with the prison criticism, it was a financial institution teller at Domingo’s native Washington Mutual department who acknowledged him as a buyer and tipped off the feds.
A name to the credit score union the place Domingo labored revealed he had an “absence from work drawback,” displaying up wherever from quarter-hour to 2 hours late. Brokers posted up outdoors his gymnasium and watched him arrive for sophistication in a white Ford pickup—the mannequin the bystander had noticed peeling away from one theft. In addition they reviewed the money deposits into his financial institution accounts, lots of which correlated with the date and amount of money taken within the robberies. A monetary evaluation revealed the household was “residing a life-style past their monetary means,” in line with the criticism.
As a ultimate step, Brown drove by Domingo’s home to scope it out. When he noticed a “on the market” signal outdoors—a last-ditch try by the couple to cowl their payments, Domingo says within the podcast—he contacted the actual property agent and organized for a viewing. Brown introduced alongside a feminine agent who posed as his spouse and distracted the agent whereas he poked round the home. When he bought into the storage, he knew he’d hit the jackpot. In a loft above the storage have been framed photographs of Domingo and his spouse with their bikes—and a particular white helmet.
“I mentioned, ‘Aha, this has bought to be him!’” Brown informed The Each day Beast.
That's how federal brokers wound up on Domingo’s doorstep that day in 2002—in his telling, with the purple gentle of an automated rifle pointed at his chest. The brokers raided the home and located a number of objects of clothes matching what the robber was seen carrying in safety footage, together with the bike helmet. Brokers questioned Patrice about whether or not the person within the safety footage seemed like her husband; she confirmed he did.
“Patrice indicated that her husband was accountable for the household’s funds and that though she knew that they have been struggling financially, her husband had informed her repeatedly that along with borrowing cash from his father, he was additionally capable of borrow cash from good friend to permit them to fulfill their monetary obligations,” the criticism states.
In line with Domingo, he and Patrice have been allowed to share a shell-shocked hug earlier than the brokers whisked him away to lockup. He mentioned he whispered in her ear: “I really like you sweetheart, and all the pieces is true.”
The Payback
Domingo pleaded responsible to 5 counts of financial institution theft, a choice he says he made partly so he may very well be freed earlier to see his daughter develop up. He served almost 4 years within the infamous Terminal Island jail in Los Angeles, which as soon as housed Charles Manson and Al Capone, and was launched in 2005.
However Domingo says his time behind bars was not the worst of his punishment. A few month earlier than his sentence was up, he realized he could be deported to the U.Okay. due to his prison report. He and Patrice had all the time deliberate for him to come back again to San Diego and be part of Angelique’s life, and the couple was devastated.
Picture Illustration by Erin O’Flynn/The Each day Beast/Courtesy of Ridwaan Domingo, Pixabay
In an particularly ironic twist, Domingo says he initially utilized to serve his jail time period within the U.Okay., however the U.S. authorities turned him down, ruling that America was his place of residence.
“How handy for them 30 days earlier than my launch to abruptly have a rethink and say, ‘Oh you realize what, you’re British!” he joked in an interview final week.
Again within the U.Okay., Domingo hatched a plan: Patrice and Angelique would come reside with him abroad for 10 years, at which level he believed he’d be allowed again into the U.S. However in a replay of his bank-robbery days, this scheme didn’t go in line with plan. Patrice and Angelique did transfer to the U.Okay. in 2010, however when Domingo utilized for a visa to return to the U.S. in 2016, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Companies denied him.
By that point, Patrice had already moved again to the U.S. to organize for his arrival. She provided to sponsor him for an immigrant visa, which was additionally denied. He filed for a waiver to wipe his prison historical past from his immigration report in 2019, in hopes that may enhance his possibilities of a visa. He waited by way of the backlogs brought on by the pandemic and, in November 2022 acquired his ultimate reply: a powerful no.
Domingo now sees his podcast as his final hope. He's praying that somebody in U.S. political workplace will get wind of it and volunteer to advocate on his behalf, as a result of, he says,“I don't really feel the federal government will willingly change its place.”
Not everybody has been as sympathetic as Domingo hoped. When he appeared on the British interview program This Morning to advertise his podcast, followers fumed that the hosts have been giving a convicted prison quarter-hour of fame. “Welcome to england, let's rob a financial institution to get on telly,” one fan tweeted. “Poor folks within the banks being robbed at the moment are scarred all for the sake of him and his spouse, horrible story,” one other added. The one overview for his podcast on Apple states: “Don’t do the crime in case you can’t do the time. Keep the place you might be.”
Domingo pushes again on the declare that he “scarred” any financial institution tellers, saying he designed his heists so they didn't require using violence or threats. However he says he is aware of what he did was unsuitable, and he thinks on daily basis of the folks he harm—not the least his spouse and youngster.
Domingo did not really inform his daughter the reality about his crimes till eight weeks in the past, simply earlier than his podcast debuted. (Throughout his jail stint, the couple informed her he was away engaged on a ship. “How do you clarify to a 4-year-old, ‘Your daddy robbed some banks and he’s going to jail?’” he requested.) When he lastly got here clear to Angelique, he says, she was tearful however understanding. At present, his largest fear is that he gained’t be capable to stroll her down the aisle at her marriage ceremony.
Trying again on all of it, he says he has regret however no regrets—since his lifetime of crime gave delivery to essentially the most treasured factor in his life.
“I’d do all of it once more if it will give me my Chummy,” he mentioned. “I'm the luckiest dad on the market.”