FBI apprehends ‘Shaky Bandit’ after an unsteady attempt at escape

The man the FBI called “Shaky Bandit” got caught when his getaway driving didn’t measure up to “Smokey and The Bandit” levels.

That’s according to the FBI, which says it arrested Weston’s Brandon Venditti, 22, late Tuesday afternoon after a car chase and crash. The suspected serial bank robber, given the aforementioned sobriquet because his hands shook during robberies, allegedly just had hit a Collier County bank.

Monday, the FBI announced the "Shaky Bandit" nickname and that he was now the suspect in 11 robberies in 20 days after jobs Monday in Plant City and Port St. Lucie. The first nine robberies occurred in Broward and Palm Beach counties.

After Tuesday’s Collier County bank robbery, around 5 p.m., sheriff’s deputies, Florida Highway Patrol troopers and FBI agents saw a car they thought might have been the getaway car in the robbery. The car wouldn’t pull over for the law enforcement mass. But when the car crashed around mile marker 91 on Interstate 75’s Alligator Alley stretch, Venditti surrendered. The other person in the car with him also was arrested.

Venditti has a pending petit theft case in Broward County courts from July for allegedly walking out of a Home Depot with a $299 gas chainsaw, but without paying.

This story was originally published October 18, 2017 at 12:05 PM with the headline "FBI apprehends ‘Shaky Bandit’ after an unsteady attempt at escape."