'Silverware Bandit' Sentenced to 210 Years

A burglar who terrorized elderly women in Santa Monica and West Los Angeles in the summer of 2008 will spend more than 200 years to life in state prison, a judge determined Friday.

Jeffrey Wayne Langford targeted elderly women who lived alone in single story homes. He climbed through windows, roused the women and demanded money, jewelry or silverware, earning him the nickname, “The Silverware Bandit,” prosecutors said.

"People were terrorized by him," said Santa Monica Police Sgt. Richard Lewis, who worked the case. "He was coming in the middle of the night, tying them up, threatening their lives. He would spend hours there, ransacking their homes."

Prior to this case, Langford, now 56, had seven prior “strikes,” including convictions in 1982 and 1976 for residential burglaries.

A Los Angeles Superior Court judge sentenced him Friday for crimes that took place between June and August 2008 and involved seven victims, ranging in age from 75 to 93. Two incidents were in Santa Monica and the rest were in the West Los Angeles area.

The Los Angeles Police Department led the investigation with help from its Special Investigation Section and the Santa Monica Police Department. With a tip from a former Beverly Hills detective, investigators eventually targeted Langford as their suspect and conducted surveillance of him, Lewis said.

He was arrested after police said Langford attempted to strike a third victim in Santa Monica.

On Feb. 15, 2011, Langford was convicted of eight counts of first-degree burglary, six counts of first-degree residential robbery, three counts of criminal threats, two counts each of cutting a utility line and false imprisonment of an elder, and one count of assault by means likely to produce great bodily injury.