A 70-year-old man charged with robbing a bank in Kansas last week told investigators that he preferred a jail cell to living with his wife.
According to court documents obtained by the Kansas City Star, Lawrence John Ripple was charged with bank robbery in federal court Tuesday. On Friday, Ripple gave a note to a teller at the Bank of Labor in Kansas City, demanding cash and warning he had a gun, according to the documents.
The teller complied. But instead of fleeing, Ripple took the cash and sat in the bank lobby.
Approached by a bank security guard, Ripple told him “I’m the guy you’re looking for,” according to the documents.
Ripple, who said he had been arguing with his wife, told investigators that he “no longer wanted to be in that situation.”
“Ripple wrote out his demand note in front of his wife … and told her he’d rather be in jail than at home,” an FBI agent wrote in an affidavit supporting the robbery charge.
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