Feds sentence Greater Boston ‘Ice Cream’ bandit to 8+ years for armed robbery

He just had to get a third or fourth scoop, and this time it’s really going to cost him.

A federal judge has sentenced the Massachusetts “Ice Cream” bandit to eight and a half years in prison after he robbed two Greater Boston convenience stores in the same night — all while he already had pending state charges for other armed robberies and three outstanding warrants for other theft-related crimes.

“This defendant has wreaked havoc in our community for over a decade, committing a string of armed robberies against innocent victims,” Acting U.S. Attorney Joshua Levy said in a statement.

U.S. District Court Judge Allison D. Burroughs sentenced Fernando Bost, 32, of Boston and Springfield, to eight and a half years in federal prison to be followed by three years of supervised release.

Bost, who Boston FBI Special Agent in Charge Jodi Cohen described as “a hardened and chronic offender,” has a pretty full rap sheet that includes two convictions out of Hampden Superior Court in Springfield for armed robbery, according to court records. He was sentenced in 2012 to 4 ½ years for the charge and again in 2017 to six and a half years.

And those are just his convictions. He also had pending charges for both armed and unarmed robbery and three outstanding warrants from three Greater Boston courts for charges including armed robbery, assault with a dangerous weapon, breaking and entering in the daytime, receiving stolen property, and shoplifting.

On March 29, 2023, Bost was itching yet again to commit armed robbery and he started with a 7-Eleven in Brockton.

Surveillance shows Bost entering the store at around 10:20 p.m. He was wearing an all-black getup and rubber gloves and brandishing a handgun, according to an FBI affidavit filed with the charges. While the look sounds stealthy, he did have a bit of flair that made him easy to identify for investigators tracking him: the words “Ice Cream” emblazoned across the left leg of his sweatpants.

After taking about $160 from the register, the feds say Bost hopped into a maroon Kia Sorento of a model year from more than a decade ago with a distinctive mismatched bumper. A woman at the wheel pointed the car toward Dorchester and Bost’s next heist.

He selected RJ Smoke and Convenience in the 800-block of Blue Hill Avenue and walked in a little after 11 p.m. It was the same story here, according to court filings: he took out his gun, walked behind the counter and ordered the cashier to open the drawer and then kneel on the floor. Bost walked away with between $700 and $800.

It was RJ’s that local police first heard about, and they back-tracked him to the 7-Eleven, based on a license plate reader between Brockton and Dorchester and surveillance footage from the store. And that prominent “Ice Cream” logo on his pants.

The Sorento turned out to be owned by a Hyde Park woman who rented it out to others using the “Getaround” app, a kind of Airbnb for cars. Investigators pulled records and found the name of the woman who was renting it at the time. In an interview, the woman pointed toward Bost as the culprit.