An 82-Year-Old Illinois Bank Robber Gets House Arrest
One Southern Illinois man is getting off pretty easy for robbing a bank.
Why is this man getting such a light sentence?
The fact that he's 82 might have something to do with it.
Arthur Bays walked into the State Bank of Whittington in Benton last July with a toy gun in his waistband and demanded money from the teller.
He ended up walking out with $12,500.
Why would an 82-year-old man rob a bank in the first place? Like most, because of desperation.
Bays was talked into purchasing a new car because he was told it would cost $2,000 to fix the air conditioning unit on his previous car.
After making five payments, Bays said he was broke.
The prosecutor in the case wanted Bays to serve prison time, but Federal Judge Phil Gilbert struggled with what he was going to sentence the elderly bank robber to.
Judge Gilbert told Bays he had never seen a defendant as old as Bays and that he was struggling with a proper sentence for him.
He ended up being sentenced to 10 weekends in jail and six months of house confinment.