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Fugitive Couple Caught in South Africa

Posted on: Wednesday, 20 August 2003, 06:00 CDT

An American couple dubbed the modern-day Bonnie and Clyde for a spate of bank robberies across the U.S. West were arrested in South Africa after eight years on the run, authorities said Wednesday.

South African police and the FBI arrested Craig Michael Pritchert, 41, and Nova Ester Guthrie, 28, in Capetown on Tuesday night, South African police spokeswoman Mary Martins Engelbrecht said. The couple, who were on the FBI's most-wanted list, had been living in the country since 2000 under the aliases Andy and Dane Brown.

The Colorado-born Guthrie worked as a manager at a trendy Cape Town nightclub, Bossa Nova; Pritchert, born in Illinois, often visited her, authorities said. Engelbrecht said the two would likely be extradited.

Pritchert and Guthrie are suspected of armed robberies in Arizona, Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, Texas, and Oregon between 1993 and 1996.

U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Judy Moon said the FBI got information last month that the two were in the Cape Town suburb of Sea Point.

During their crime spree, the couple tended to rob banks either early in the morning or at closing time, Moon said.

"Pritchert was always armed with a semiautomatic handgun and used duct tape, cheap handcuffs or plastic ties to bind bank employees," she said.

The FBI has said proceeds from the crimes apparently were used for travel, snowboarding and stock investments. Immediately after leaving the bank, the suspects would destroy all their equipment and head off to vacation spots including ski areas in Colorado and Canada and to Belize.

Pritchert was a former Arizona State University baseball star who had three children from a previous marriage.

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