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Xaviar Babudar, the Kansas City Chiefs superfan known as 'ChiefsAholic,' was sentenced to 17.5 years in prison without parole and three years of supervised release in relation to a string of armed bank robberies Thursday (September 5), the same day as the team's 2024 NFL season home opener, ESPN reports.
Babudar, 30, entered a plea deal, admitting to stealing more than $800,000 in 11 robberies across seven states, as well as laundering the proceeds through casinos, in February, having faced one count of bank robbery, one count of money laundering and one count of transporting stolen property across state lines. The superfan ranked fifth among the Greater Kansas City Crime Stoppers' 'Most Wanted Fugitives List' prior to his arrest.
Babudar was re-arrested in July 2023, after being on the run amid a $1 million bond and cutting off his ankle monitor several months prior. The 30-year-old was previously booked at around 10:15 a.m. on December 16. 2022, two days before the Chiefs' road game against the Houston Texans, which he had publicly stated he planned to attend, having done so for both home and road games throughout the season.
Several Chiefs fans noticed his sudden lack of social media absence at the time, which caused concern on the r/KansasCityChiefs reddit thread.
"Chiefs fan known as 'ChiefsAholic' who is usually very active on social media, especially on gameday, hasn't been seen or heard from in 3 days," the Reddit post stated. "He likely had a ticket to attend the Texans game but wasn't spotted in attendance, if anyone has seen him or is able to help then please do your thing Chiefs Kingdom."
The post yielded numerous responses of screenshots detailing his criminal history, which were also shared on other social media platforms. Twitter user David Mathews shared a since-deleted thread detailing that Babudar had not only been arrested for armed robbery at the time, but was also involved in multiple robbery related incidents dating back to October 2016.
Babudar also shared several tweets in the past bragging about his lifestyle, which he implied "hard work pays off" and had claimed that he had graduated from Kansas State University, although "there is no record he ever attended that school," according to Matthews.
The Chiefs will host the Baltimore Ravens in the NFL Kickoff Game at Arrowhead Stadium Thursday night as they look to three-peat as Super Bowl champions.