A 70-year-old man facing a bank robbery charge told officers that he tried to rob a bank after telling his wife he’d “rather be in jail than at home.”
Lawrence John Ripple faces a charge of bank robbery after he presented a note to a teller at the Bank of Labor, 756 Minnesota Ave., on Sept. 2, according to the criminal complaint.
However, authorities didn’t allow him his wish of being in jail for very long. He has been released from jail before the trial in federal court. A status conference for the case is set for Friday, Sept. 9, in federal court.
The criminal complaint, entered in court documents by an FBI agent, stated that Ripple approached a teller counter, gave the teller a note that said he had a gun and demanded cash. The teller gave him $2,924. Then Ripple sat down in the bank lobby, according to the criminal complaint.
A bank security guard told federal authorities that the guard approached Ripple when he was sitting in the lobby with the money, and Ripple told him he “was the guy he was looking for.” The guard then took Ripple into custody.
When Ripple was being taken to the nearby Kansas City, Kan., Police headquarters, he told an officer that he had committed the robbery, according to the criminal complaint.
In an interview room at police headquarters, he was advised of his rights, and then Ripple talked with officers, including an FBI agent, and told them he and his wife had an argument at home and Ripple “no longer wanted to be in the situation.”
He told police he wrote out his note in front of his wife, told her he’d rather be in jail than at home, and then went to the bank and robbed it, according to the criminal complaint.
