Guy robs bank for $1 so he can go to jail and get health care...

[Kimmik]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_theloo...pphu-container

This literally made me cry. I know how this poor guy feels. Seeing how I am being threatened with lawsuits and garnishment of my husbands checks due to medical bills.

Social programs are not the evil that most make them out to be.. I have known people to die because they couldnt afford treatments, hell my doc had to rob her samples to fill an antibiotic script that i needed to live.

I would need to literally need to win a lottery to pay off all my bills... *sighs* only in America...

[Rageaholic]

Wow, it's pretty bad when someone actually wants to go to jail believing it to be a better alternative.

Anyone who disses social programs should pray to god they never end up in a situation where they would need them.

[Andara Bledin]

It's not particularly uncommon.

There are a lot of vagrants who will do something petty just so they can have a good meal and a night in secure lodging.

While I can understand his reasons, I can't agree with his methods. He could have gotten a similar result without having to victimize someone else to do it.

^-.-^

[Kimmik]

I agree Andara what he did to the teller is not right... but lord so desperate to do something that bad... it is just... god i know the cost of care...

[insertNameHere]

OH NO, he handed a note over, he could have came in there and waved a gun in the tellers face before killing someone. While, he did victimize the poor teller by demanding $1 and medical attention. The robbery could have been much worse and much more traumatic experience.

[Andara Bledin]

OH NO, he handed a note over, he could have came in there and waved a gun in the tellers face before killing someone. While, he did victimize the poor teller by demanding $1 and medical attention. The robbery could have been much worse and much more traumatic experience.

Who cares if it could have been worse.

What's important is that it shouldn't have happened at all.

Nice how just because she's not a pitiable character that her own well-being can be thrown under the bus because it could have been WORSE.

^-.-^

[bainsidhe]

What part of the story are we missing? It makes it sound like he's a poor old man who didn't act like he'd hurt a fly, yet the teller was clearly terrified. Though to be honest, any robber is going to make me wet myself, I don't care how innocent they look. I really do feel for him, but I hate that an employee got sucked into the drama.

[Andara Bledin]

I'm not sure exactly how poor this guy is, since he plans to "move to the beach" when his social security kicks in. Last I checked, any beach that wasn't toxic was pretty high rent.

Honestly, while I understand his issues, he's more or less a welfare scammer who had to harass an innocent bystander to get there.

^-.-^

[mikoyan29]

This guy in the age group where he's almost old enough to start drawing Social Security but not old enough to draw Medicare. Of all of the living expenses, health care is probably the costliest. He's probably too old to get hired somewhere (except maybe as a greeter at WalMart). It sounds like he did all the right things in life and hit a bump in the road. I hate to sound too much like the left wingers but we can afford to bomb the shit out of people but we can't afford health care. Here we are the richest country in the world and we have situations like this. Our infrastructure is crumbling. Our education is crumbling but that's okay because Mr. Banker needs his tax cut so he can farm more jobs overseas. I guess the Republicans want the income distribution of the third world as well.

In Sunday's Washington Post there was a pretty interesting article.

[Crazedclerkthe2nd]

Guy robs bank for $1 so he can go to jail and get health care...

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/nati..._prison_f.html

A North Carolina man robbed a local store for a dollar just so he could get health care in prison, he said.

James Verone, 59, handed the teller a note demanding $1 and claimed he had a gun, ABC News reported.

He then walked away and sat down, waiting for police.

"I started to walk away from the teller, then I went back and said, I'll be sitting right over there in the chair waiting for the police," he said, according to local television station 9News. "I wanted to make it known that this wasn't for monetary reasons, but for medical reasons."

It says a lot about American society when a guy is willing to get a criminal record simply so he can see a doctor without paying a fortune.

I this guy partially did what he did to make a point, but I really hope this doesn't spur a whole wave of copycats. Police departments are stretched enough.

[insertNameHere]

Right because setting the guy free and telling him SORRY you didn't do enough of a crime isn't going to piss him off to the point he feels the need to KILL someone or walks into a bank with a live bomb to cause more fear.

I work in a C-store, and being robbed is a possibility some people are just weak minded, yeah I'm gonna panic if I get robbed, but some of my coworkers get panic attacks from finding out one of the stores in the ghetto 20 miles away got robbed a week prior. I can see wanting to be cautious or being more alert if it right up the road, but when something bad happens in a High crime area, I tend to not be surprised, while the area I work in has a much better staffed police force and rich professionals it possible to get robbed but not very likely. We have been robbed I guess once in the 5 years under the new brand name, while some locations are a monthly or weekly thing and get have bullet proof glass around them.

[mikoyan29]

Where the guy screwed up is by robbing a store. He should have been selling collateralized debt obligations that he knew were going to fail. He could have made billions and bought off Congress so that he gets off scot free. Oh he might have to pay some of that back when people realize that he knew they were toxic.

[kiwi]

I know people who stole a bag of chips from a 7-11 just to get "3 hots and a cot". Desperate people do desperate things.

[Plaidman]

He had a great job but was let go, and was working as a covience store clerk himself but not getting enough pay.

Just further proof that jail and prison get far better perks then any other job in the world. He was treated by a doctor within days of going there. Other people would have to wait weeks or months. And unlike those who have to wait, he doesn't have to pay a nickle.

[Evandril]

If the report of him coming into the bank, handing the teller the note peacefully, and then sitting down is correct...I can see *him* not thinking he'd tramatize the teller...He'd be wrong, but I can see him believing that.