Thursday, August 14, 2003

Hey gramps, can you loan me a thousand?

DALLAS (Reuters) - Texas police said have arrested a 91-year-old man suspected of robbing an Abilene bank, possibly making him the oldest bank robber in U.S. history.
J.L. Hunter Rountree, who goes by the nickname "Red," was arrested on Tuesday on suspicion of stealing about $2,000, Abilene police said.

They said they had no records to prove it, but they thought Rountree was the oldest person ever to rob a bank in the country.

Police said Rountree, who was not armed, asked a teller to stuff money into a large envelop with the word "robbery" written on it.

A witness took down the license number of his vehicle and he was arrested on a highway about 15 miles outside Abilene. He did not resist, police said.

If convicted, Rountree faces from two to 20 years in prison. He told police he needed the money and he had a grudge against banks, said Abilene police Sgt. Mike Perry.

Rountree left a prison in Florida, where he was the oldest prisoner in the state, about a year ago after serving a three-year sentence imposed on him for a 1999 bank robbery in Pensacola.

He was caught holding up a bank in Biloxi, Mississippi, in 1998 when he was 87, and given three years' probation.
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Well I guess you are never to old to rob a bank providing you can move fast enough.


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