Craig Pritchert played baseball for ASU in the early 1980s.
In the late 1990s, he turned from hitting balls to hitting banks.
Police arrested Pritchert Tuesday in Cape Town, South Africa, in connection with a series of bank robberies in the western United States.
Since 1997, Pritchert, 40, and girlfriend Nova Esther Guthrie, 30, had been wanted by the FBI.
Working as a team, Pritchert and Guthrie robbed six banks in six years, according to Phoenix FBI Agent Susan Herskovits.
"They survived on stolen money and stayed in elite, expensive locations around the world," she said.
The pair targeted banks in New Mexico, Arizona, Texas, Oregon, Colorado and Montana. Herskovits said they began the streak with a Northwest Bank in Phoenix.
Each robbery involved an armed takeover of the bank. The robbers then reportedly bound their victims in rope and broke into the banks' vaults.
According to the FBI, an unknown third conspirator assisted in each incident. No one was injured in any of the robberies.
Police arrested Pritchert and Guthrie at their home on a tip from a Cape Town resident who recognized Guthrie from an FBI bulletin.
Pritchert attended ASU from 1982 to 1983 as a student in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.
The couple is expected to return to the United States to face charges this week.
Reach the reporter at kelly.vaughn@asu.edu.
