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The saga of the diehard football fan known as “Chiefsaholic” has taken a number of wild turns over the past couple of years, and we’ve been treated to a new development concerning a lawsuit filed by a bank teller who was victimized by his crime spree.
If you’re not familiar with the strange tale of Chiefsaholic, it revolves around Xaviar Babudar, a Kansas City Chiefs superfan who was known for attending games at Arrowhead Stadium while rocking his signature wolf costume.
He was able to use his notoriety to amass a sizeable following online with the social media accounts that featured plenty of posts about his gambling endeavors—a habit the world eventually learned was largely funded through some less-than-legal means.
In 2022, Babudar was arrested after attempting to use a bicycle to flee the scene after robbing a bank in Oklahoma. He was eventually released on bond under the condition he didn’t leave the state, but after winning $100,000 on a couple of bets he placed on the Chiefs, he fled and spent four months on the lam before he was captured in California last July.
The following month, he was charged with 19 felonies after being accused of making off with over $800,000 by robbing 11 different banks in seven states and taking regular trips to casinos in order to launder it.
In February, Babudar pled guilty and was subsequently forced to hand over an autographed painting of Patrick Mahomes to put a dent in the $532,000 in restitution he was ordered to pay, and he is currently facing up to 50 years in prison ahead of his sentencing hearing in July.
Now, ESPN reports Chiefsaholic is theoretically on the hook for much, much more thanks to the lawsuit that was filed by Payton Garcia, who was working as a teller at the credit union at the center of the aforementioned robbery in Oklahoma.
Garcia quit her job in the wake of the incident and sued for damages in a case that ended with a judge ruling Babudar was liable for “$3.6 million for inflicting physical harm and emotional distress and $7.2 million in punitive damages.”
Her attorney acknowledged it’s unlikely she’ll ever receive anything close to that sum but nonetheless positioned it as a victory while noting it ensures Babudar will have to forfeit the proceeds of any projects (like books or movies) that could stem from one of the stranger NFL-adjacent stories you’ll ever encounter.