FBI: Elderly ex-con robbed bank in hopes of returning to prison
CHICAGO (AP) - After spending most of his adult life behind bars, 73-year-old Walter Unbehaun decided to rob another bank in hopes of getting caught. He felt more comfortable in prison, court documents allege, and wanted to spend his final years there.
So the balding, gray-haired South Carolina man leaned on a cane as he walked into a bank in suburban Chicago over the weekend and used a novel stickup line: He had just six months to live, so he had nothing left to lose, according to a federal complaint citing his post-arrest interrogation.
Unbehaun also allegedly lifted his coat to show a teller a silver revolver shoved into his waistband.
Investigators say Unbehaun, of Rock Hill, S.C., walked out of the Harris Bank in Niles on Saturday with $4,178 in his pockets. He wore no disguises, so law enforcement quickly tracked him down using surveillance-camera photos of him holding up the bank, the complaint said.
When authorities stopped Unbehaun on Sunday outside a motel room where he was staying, he immediately threw down his cane and surrendered, saying he knew they were there because he robbed a bank the day before, according to the complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Chicago.
Unbehaun told investigators hours after his arrest that he had spent most of his adult life in prison and "felt more comfortable in prison than out."
"He wanted to do something that would guarantee that he would spend the rest of his life in prison, and he knew that robbing a bank with a loaded gun would accomplish that," according to the complaint, signed by FBI agent Chad Piontek.
Contacted on Tuesday, Unbehaun's defense attorney, Richard McLeese, declined comment.
Unbehaun's most recent stint behind bars ended in 2011, when he was released after serving 10 years for a 1998 bank robbery. His Illinois record alone includes multiple other felonies dating back decades.
Unbehaun made an initial court appearance Monday in Chicago and was ordered to remain in jail pending further court procedures. No additional hearing dates were set.
If he is eventually convicted on the new bank robbery charge, he could be sent to prison for up to 20 years.
So the balding, gray-haired South Carolina man leaned on a cane as he walked into a bank in suburban Chicago over the weekend and used a novel stickup line: He had just six months to live, so he had nothing left to lose, according to a federal complaint citing his post-arrest interrogation.
Unbehaun also allegedly lifted his coat to show a teller a silver revolver shoved into his waistband.
Investigators say Unbehaun, of Rock Hill, S.C., walked out of the Harris Bank in Niles on Saturday with $4,178 in his pockets. He wore no disguises, so law enforcement quickly tracked him down using surveillance-camera photos of him holding up the bank, the complaint said.
When authorities stopped Unbehaun on Sunday outside a motel room where he was staying, he immediately threw down his cane and surrendered, saying he knew they were there because he robbed a bank the day before, according to the complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Chicago.
Unbehaun told investigators hours after his arrest that he had spent most of his adult life in prison and "felt more comfortable in prison than out."
"He wanted to do something that would guarantee that he would spend the rest of his life in prison, and he knew that robbing a bank with a loaded gun would accomplish that," according to the complaint, signed by FBI agent Chad Piontek.
Contacted on Tuesday, Unbehaun's defense attorney, Richard McLeese, declined comment.
Unbehaun's most recent stint behind bars ended in 2011, when he was released after serving 10 years for a 1998 bank robbery. His Illinois record alone includes multiple other felonies dating back decades.
Unbehaun made an initial court appearance Monday in Chicago and was ordered to remain in jail pending further court procedures. No additional hearing dates were set.
If he is eventually convicted on the new bank robbery charge, he could be sent to prison for up to 20 years.
What a sad, sad story
@Lori Norman ~  It is sad when we have people who have so little that what they had in prison looks good... This man probably has no family, and the only people he counts as friends are in prison...  He would probably be just another homeless man "on the outside"...no home, no income, no medical care, no nothing... I understand where he's coming from, but I still think it's sad...
It's an all-expenses-paid retirement. What's not to love?
@nerdbyrd Bubba
Hopefully they will convict him and send him home to his cell where he can live out his life the way he wants.
Prison is really a pretty nice place if one doesn't mind the lack of freedom.
Â
Good food, medical care, counselors, steady work, warm, dry, TV, and pretty safe. No worries about where the rent is coming from, no worries about paying the energy bill, can't get fired for not showing up for work.
Â
For those who have nothing it really is a nice retirement plan.
 @RalphCramden I don't want the friends with bennies.
@Kushfan I'm going to see if there is any snow left in Sedona and maybe hit a casino in the area. Have fun with Prissy.
 @WendyTeagarden Are you going down Slide Rock?
@RalphCramden I wonder if that lumps him in with the other 47%?
What a sad commentary.. Prison is a step up for this guy. The greater punishment for him, and many other offenders both young and old, would be simply forcing him to accept adult responsibility and live in the world as a free man. Too many of these guys can't even imagine such a life. *Sigh*
 @StealthActivist everyone this man knows is behind bars. most likely he has no other family.
Dear Mr Unbehaun,
Thank you for not killing or wounding anyone in your quest.
 @WendyTeagarden "Is that a  silver revolver in your pants, or are you just happy to go home?"
@Kushfan Let's embroider him a wall hanging with "Home Sweet Home" on it.