Photo Credit: Ben P L/Flickr
A Utah man politely walked into a Wells Fargo bank with a handwritten note politely demanding $1 from the teller and subsequently sat in the lobby waiting for the police to arrest him. The 65 year old man, Donald Matthew Santacroce’s note read “Please pardon me for doing this but this is a robbery. Please give me $1. Thank you.” After being given the dollar, he was asked to leave, but he insisted the police come to get him.
“Donald sat down in the bank lobby and waited for police to arrive. While waiting for police, Donald made a statement to the victims that they are lucky (he) didn’t have a gun because it was taking the police so long to get there. At this point the branch manager said she ushered all of her employees into a back room for their safety where she locked the doors,” the police affidavit stated.
“Donald said he had done this because he wanted to get arrested and go to federal prison. Donald stated that if he gets out of jail, he will rob another bank and ask for more money next time trying to get the desired result of going to federal prison.”
While it isn’t clear what caused the man to want to be arrested, it has been in the 20s at night there recently and he very well may have wanted to get out of the cold. A man in Mississippi recently broke out windows in a courthouse to go to jail so that he could get out of the cold. Sheriff Travis Patten said the suspect started by asking if he could spend the night in jail but wasn’t allowed to for liability reasons. He then said, “I will make you lock me up then.” He went on to bust out a courthouse window with his elbow and then picked up throwing a table to ensure he went to jail. The Sheriff said that what he did gave some insight on the city’s homeless population, stating “Now, am I condoning him tearing up county property? Absolutely not, But when you put people in desperate situations, during desperate times, they do desperate things. If there was a shelter he would not have to have committed a crime to have been able to get out of the cold, and could have also had a hot meal.”
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