BOSTON — It read like a script straight out of a Hollywood crime thriller: a stolen U-Haul van, a daytime ambush in a bank parking lot, zip-ties, pepper spray, and a desperate, gunfire-punctuated escape. But for 39-year-old Christopher White, the credits have finally rolled—and they landed him 154 months behind bars.
Federal prosecutors announced that White, a Raynham man, was sentenced in federal court in Boston to nearly 13 years in prison following a brazen armed robbery that netted over $430,000 in cash, but ultimately unraveled under a hail of the victim’s own bullets.
The Ambush in Swansea
The plot kicked off in the pre-dawn hours of February 19, 2024, when White and an accomplice, Steven Madison, were captured on surveillance cameras swiping a rental van from a U-Haul storage lot in Abington.
Later that afternoon, the stakes spiked dramatically. An armed courier working for a secure transport company servicing licensed cannabis businesses pulled up to a Swansea bank. He was carrying roughly $436,200 in cash destined for deposit.
As the courier stepped out, the stolen U-Haul surged forward, cutting him off. Wearing a mask and a camouflaged vest, White leapt from the vehicle, leveled a firearm at the courier, and violently secured his hands with zip-ties. While Madison rushed to clear the cash into the van, the two robbers attempted to strip the guard of his defense, ultimately shoving him into the back seat of his own car and blasting him with pepper spray before slamming the door.
Tables Turn
The robbers thought they had secured the bag, but they severely underestimated their target.
Trapped in the back seat and blinded by pepper spray, the courier managed to wriggle one hand free from the zip-ties. Drawing his own firearm, he rolled down the window and fired four rounds directly at the fleeing U-Haul as it scrambled out of the parking lot, frantically dialing 911 moments later.
The panicked crew abandoned the van at a secondary Swansea rendezvous point, ditching it for an SUV driven by a third co-conspirator, Quentin McDonald, to vanish with the spoils.
Justice Catches Up
The getaway didn’t last. A subsequent search of White’s Raynham home turned up incriminating evidence: matching zip-ties, a black mask mirroring the one worn during the heist, a firearm, ammunition, and cocaine.
White’s criminal luck officially ran out when he pleaded guilty in May 2026 to a litany of charges, including Hobbs Act robbery, brandishing a firearm during a violent crime, being a felon in possession, and drug distribution. U.S. District Court Judge Patti B. Saris handed down the 12-and-a-half-year sentence, followed by three years of supervised release.
His co-conspirators are facing their own day of reckoning: Madison pleaded guilty and is slated to be sentenced on November 9, 2026, while McDonald faces his sentencing hearing on December 3, 2026.
For White, the multi-state conspiracy has culminated in a federal prison cell—proving that crime rarely pays, especially when the target shoots back.
