Female ‘Hugging Bandit’ Bagged Again For Preying On Drunken Men
Buffalo, NY – Myra Castleberry is just a 54-year-old woman who likes hugging men. Well, and robbing them blind.
Castleberry has earned international infamy for her crimes as Buffalo’s “Hugging Bandit” and added another notch to her criminal convictions belt on Tuesday, reports The Buffalo News. She pleaded guilty to fourth-degree grand larceny, which is her seventh felony conviction. On top of that, she has 44 misdemeanor convictions from her career as a hugging bandit.
She admitted in court (after her 60th arrest, for the record) to stealing a 35-year-old man’s wallet on July 22 while he was working out a cab fare. She has, in the past, targeted tipsy or drunk men while helping herself to their pocketbooks.
She entered her plea before Erie County Judge Thomas Franczyk, who handed down a prison sentence from 18 months to three years. The maximum sentence for her larceny charge is four years in prison.
Castleberry is easily one of the most famous hugging bandits, but it’s not an entirely uncommon phenomenon. Though her gig is robbery-based, other hugging bandits, many of them men, seem to be in it for pervy reasons.
One such hugging bandit plagued St. Louis last summer, approaching many women and asking them for a hug. He would feign familiarity, saying that he used to live in his target’s old neighborhood and would converse with each woman for a short period of time. He would ultimately declare that it was his birthday and ask for a hug.
In any case, once Castleberry gets out, we advise she go straight. She could use her talents to earn money from men in another way, like Penfield, New York-based Jacqueline Samuel.
Samuel, a 29-year-old graduate student, runs a business called Snuggery, lending out her body (in a clean, SFW way) to lonely individuals who just want to snuggle. She earns $60 per hour as a “professional snuggler.”
Leave the hard life, Ms. Castleberry.
What do you think of the hugging bandit?
[Image via: Preto Perola, Shutterstock.com]
