By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CHEHALIS – Chehalis’s bicycle-riding bank robber was sentenced today to 12 years in prison.
Larry G. Bailey, 53, is a long time bank robber who has spent most of his adult life in prison for bank robbery, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
U.S. District Judge Ronald B. Leighton said the prison term was necessary to protect the community, according to a news release this afternoon.
Larry G. Bailey
Bailey was arrested on the morning of Jan. 26, 2015 after ditching a BMX-style bicycle on Chehalis’s West Street overpass, with a deputy in pursuit, about 45 minutes after an individual with a similar description implied to the manager of Chase Bank at the other end of town he had a gun and was taken into the bank’s vault.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office indicates he had walked into the bank dressed as an elderly woman, with a canvas bag and one of his hands hidden under his shirt.
He took $36,000, which was recovered tucked inside a floral print cloth bag in his backpack, according to authorities.
He was first charge in Lewis County Superior Court and the case moved to federal court. U.S. Attorney’s Office spokesperson Emily Langlie says he pleaded guilty.
Bailey had been out of prison less than a year when he committed the bank robbery on South Market Boulevard in Chehalis.
Bailey’s bank robbery history begins in the 1980s, according to federal authorities.
His first prison term for bank robbery was 30 months and he was released in 1990. In 1991, he was sentenced to nearly ten years in prison for bank robberies in Kansas and Spokane.
Five years after his release on that prison term, in July 2004, Bailey was arrested and sentenced to ten years in prison for another bank robbery in Spanaway.
He escaped from a community corrections facility in Tacoma in March 2013, and was taken back into custody in August 2013. Bailey was sent back to prison to finish his prison term.
He was living in a tent near the 1500 block of Bishop Road around the time he was arrested for the Chase Bank holdup.
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For background, read, “Suspected Chase Bank robber believed to have numerous similar convictions” from Tuesday January 27, 2015, here