Bank robber asks for US$1 intending to go to jail

Friday demanding a dollar, after the first teller thought it was a joke, according to a police complaint.
“Federal bank robbery. Please hand over US$1,00,” one of the two notes read.
After being signalled to a different window, the 50-year-old man spoke next with a new accounts employee and repeated he was robbing the bank for a buck, the Tribune-Democrat reports.
Not understanding McMullen’s full intent, one of the tellers told police she went into her own purse for the dollar bill given to him.
Police say McMullen apparently wanted to be prosecuted federally so he could be taken to a specific prison in central Pennsylvania. Police could not immediately say why.
One of the other notes given to tellers said: “FBI custody. Preferbly (sic) Loretto Pa. No press. Seal all files,” according to the complaint.
Police took that to be a request that McMullen hoped authorities would not publicise his case.
McMullen awaits a preliminary hearing, and court records didn’t list an attorney.
Under terms set by a Northern Cambria district judge, he must undergo mental evaluation and post US$50 000 bail in order to win release from jail.
As much of a surprise to the two Northern Cambria bank tellers, the request is not entirely unusual nationally. Late last month a 41-year-old Oklahoma man robbed an Oklahoma City bank before telling investigators at his arrest he wanted to “get himself sent to federal prison,” SWOK News reported.
That arrest came days after a 23-year-old Washington woman robbed a Renton bank and then waited outside so she’d be taken to a facility offering mental health treatment, according to the Renton Reporter.
Earlier in May a 36-year-old homeless man in Georgia threw a brick through a glass door at the Columbus courthouse hoping he’d go to jail where “someone’s going to offer me a sandwich and drink.” — Daily Mail.