An ex-con who missed being in prison and deliberately got caught trying to rob a bank will return to prison for another three and a half years.
Walter Unbehaun was convicted of attempting to rob a Chicago BMO Harris Bank in 2013, reports the Chicago Sun-Times. He went in deliberately looking to get sent back to prison.
After he was arrested, the 74-year-old who needs a cane to walk and has had hip-replacement surgery, told FBI agents he "wanted to go back to the only life he knew -- prison life."
On Feb. 9, 2013, Unbehaun walked into the bank and robbed it for $4,178 without covering up his face. After leaving the bank, the man simply went to a motel and waited for police. He had been out of prison for all of two years before deciding he wanted to go back.
The South Carolina man was convicted several times throughout his life, stretching back to 1963. Unbehaun has been arrested previously for bank robbery, armed robbery, theft, unlawful restraint, car theft, home invasion, armed violence and unauthorized use of a weapon.
Prosecutors were leering of locking him up since that "would seem to be rewarding him for precisely the behavior we seek to deter" and urged only a five-year sentence.
According to The Associated Press, though he wanted to return to prison, Unbehaun did note while making a brief statement to the judge, "I don't want to die in prison."
Richard McLeese, defense attorney, said this case was the "saddest and most disturbing" of his career."