Kansas Man Robs Bank To Get Arrested Because He’d ‘Rather Be In Jail Than At Home’

Lawrence John Ripple isn’t your average robber. For one thing, after robbing a bank in Kansas Friday, he calmly sat down in its lobby and admitted his crime to a guard. And then, the 70-year-old man told authorities that he committed the crime because he’d rather be imprisoned than stay with his wife.

A domestic dispute with his wife of 33 years, Dido, led him to yell that he’d “rather be in jail than at home” police documents revealed. After the fight with his wife, he drove himself to the Brotherhood Bank and Trust in Kansas City’s Riverview neighborhood. The Kansas City Police department is located on the same block as the bank.

At the bank, he gave the teller a note that read “I have a gun. Give me money,” which he “wrote out … in front of his wife.” The teller handed $3,000 over to Ripple who then sat himself down on a chair in the bank’s lobby.

When a guard approached the robber, he told him, “I’m the guy you’re looking for.”

He told investigators that he “no longer wanted to be in that situation” when referring to his fight with his wife.

Lt. Kelli Bailiff from the Wyandotte County Sheriff’s Department who has been on the force for nearly 33 years said she had never seen anything like this before.

“You can get divorced,” she reportedly said. “I’ve never heard of someone who would rather come to jail and commit a crime so they don’t have to go home and be with their family. That’s never happened.”

Ripple was charged Tuesday for the bank robbery for which he could face up to 20 years in prison. Reports said that he was moved from the Wyandotte County Detention Center in Kansas City to a federal facility in Leavenworth Wednesday.