A 71-year-old serial bank robber whose career stretches over 55 years struck again in a Columbia, Missouri bank robbery on Valentine’s Day.

Basil Jacob Kyles allegedly entered The First Mid Bank in Columbia around 11 a.m. Feb. 14, armed with a fully loaded Taurus .38 Special Revolver. 

Security footage shows the suspect in dark clothing and a black ski mask entering the bank and going to one of the front counters and pointing a gun at the bank teller with his finger on the trigger.

“Don’t move,” he warned. “I know you got buttons in here, don’t press it. I don’t wanna hurt anyone but I will. I don’t have anything to lose.” 

The suspect took $6,000 stuffed in a Walmart bag, fled the bank on foot and went to the Broadway Diner to eat a cheeseburger. 

The diner’s owner confirmed with police that Kyles was there around 11:30 a.m. The owner said Kyles used to work at the diner and the suspect was “100% him,” according to the report. 

Police found the bank robber’s jacket in the diner’s bathroom. 

Security cameras around Kyles’ home show him arriving at the apartment and later taking two trash bags to the trash chute. Police searched the trash bags and found the shoes, pants and sweatshirt the suspect was seen wearing on surveillance video. 

Kyles has at least 18 prior offenses dating as far back as 1970. He has several convictions of first-degree robbery, varying degrees of larceny, breaking and entering, and probation violations. 

The majority of his crimes were committed in Connecticut, but his most recent prior robbery was also in Columbia in 2018, in which he broke his federal parole and was sentenced to “an additional 33 months,” the police report says. Kyles was released from federal prison on April 19, 2022.

Kyles is currently being held in the Boone County Jail.

(Photo Credit: Boone County Jail)