WINNIPEG — He is one of Winnipeg’s most notorious criminals. Michael Syrnyk, better known as the ‘Yuletide Bandit’, has been released from prison.
Michael Syrnyk pulled off nine armoured car heists, 11 armed bank robberies and eight break-ins around the city.
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Monday was Syrnyk’s scheduled statutory release date, but Global News has learned he was quietly released on Friday and is now living in Winnipeg at a community correctional centre, similar to a high security halfway house. He he lives under a curfew and a number of other restrictions, if any of the restrictions are broken a warrant for his arrest will be issued.
READ MORE: Exclusive: Yuletide Bandit released from jail more than a dozen times during his sentence
In one instance, Syrnyk shot and injured a police officer. He also shot at armoured car guard, Rick Long.
“The first thing I heard was a shot went by my ear,” Long, said speaking to Global News from his home in St. Vital. It’s been 17 years since the former armoured car guard was in a shoot-out with Syrnyk. Long had just left a Safeway on Jefferson Avenue with a bag of cash when he was fired at.
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“This guy here was crazy. He didn’t say hands up, this is a stick up, hold up or whatever. He just started shooting,” Long said, “he had fired again hitting me in my vest and I returned fire and he just stood there until I was empty.”
Long says he can still smell the gun powder.
WATCH: Survivor of shootout with Yuletide Bandit recalls the day he was fired at
Syrnyk, now 47, was arrested in 2002 on dozens of charges, most relating to a series of armed robberies during holiday seasons from 1994 to 2002, which earned him the Yuletide Bandit nickname.
“He didn’t get rich off this,” said long time crime reporter and CJOB host Mike McIntyre, “he had various issues. Obsessive compulsive OCD, that sort of thing, he spoke very candidly about almost pulling this off to test himself to give him something to do something to strive for.”
Syrnyk was finally caught when he took a woman hostage at knifepoint and she was able to call 911. The standoff with police led to injuries to officers. Police finally apprehended Syrnyk when he fell asleep during the standoff.
Syrnyk was denied parole in January. But according to the law, he served two-thirds of his 21.5 year sentence and therefore can be released.
“It’s a joke,” said Long who is frustrated by the news.
“I think it frustrates most people when they get a sentence like that, serve your sentence.”
WATCH: Archived footage shows Global News coverage of Yule Tide Bandit crime spree
However, during a January Parole Board hearing he was denied day parole. Police notified the Parole Board of Canada and said they had “present concerns” about the release.
Documents obtained by Global News in January show he was denied because he presented “an undue risk to society if released on day parole.”
“Bystanders narrowly missed serious injury as you discharged your weapons in public places with heavy pedestrian traffic,” according to parole board documents. “The nature and severity of your offences is noted by the board, including the high potential for harm to the general public as well as those in the criminal justice system, such as police officers.”
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