East Cobb Bank Robber Gets 12 Years

Zachary Scott Shanaberger, 31, was sentenced to more than 12 years in federal prison Wednesday after admitting robbing nine banks in two months last year, including one in East Cobb.

U.S. District Judge Catherine Blake set the prison term at 151 months under a plea agreement the Carroll County, MD, man entered with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Baltimore.

The sentence covers four counts of bank robbery, applying to four crimes Shanaberger committed at banks in his home state in March 2010:

• Bank Annapolis in Severna Park, where he took $2,790 March 6.
• BB&T in Westminster, $2,240, March 15.
• M&T Bank in Frederick, $479, March 25.
• Howard Bank in Ellicott City, $1,850, March 27.

But Shanaberger also confessed to five other bank robberies, three of them in Cobb County. In each case, according to the plea he entered July 8, he approached a teller, threatened to pull out a gun and demanded cash with no dye packs.

He started his two-month crime spree by robbing at 4300 Bells Ferry Rd. in Kennesaw shortly before noon Jan. 28. He left with $4,948.50 after demanding a teller’s $50 and $100 bills.

After swiping $1,695 from Southern Bank in Roanoke Rapids, NC, on Feb. 9, Shanaberger struck again in Cobb. This time, he hit (now Wells Fargo) at 1547 Powers Ferry Rd. in East Cobb just before 4 p.m. Feb. 15.

He handed a teller a note written on a napkin that read, “Don’t panic. Everything will be OK. I have a gun.”

The teller gave him $1,688.

Shanaberger’s final Cobb stop came three days later just before 5 p.m. at at 125 Barrett Pkwy. in Northeast Cobb. He fled with $3,724 after handing a teller a handwritten note that mentioned a gun and demanded, “Give me all your 100’s, 50’s, 20’s.”

The described the bandit in that case as a 5-foot-8, 170-pound white man age 35 to 40. “He was last seen wearing a light-colored jacket, a white T-shirt, a tan baseball cap, tan pants and metal frame prescription glasses.”

On his way back to Maryland, Shanaberger robbed WSFS Bank in Dover, DE, of $3,170.

As part of his sentence, Shanaberger was ordered to repay the $22,584.50 he stole from the nine banks.

Columbia Patch reported Nov. 1 that Shanaberger was arrested in Howard County, MD, after a in a park-and-ride lot. The initial charges against him included drug possession, carrying a concealed weapon and motor vehicle theft.