Robbing Banks for Health Care

Epic fail or strange success? When it comes to a recent (and bizarre) alleged bank robbery, it all depends on whom you ask.

Clackamas County sheriff's deputies, for example, might be more inclined to classify Timothy Dean Alsip's alleged robbery attempt last Friday a failure. Alsip's arrest at a Bank of America branch outside Portland, Ore, was especially easy because the suspect remained at the scene of the crime, according to CBS Seattle.

Speaking with members of the media, Clackamas County Sheriff's Office spokesman Deputy Mark Nikolai described the strange chain of events, beginning a little after 10 a.m. on Aug. 23.

"[Alsip] handed over a note saying, 'This is a hold up. Give me a dollar,'" Nikolai said of the events inside the bank, according to local media reports.

Rather than flee with his ill-gotten bill, however, Alsip reportedly took a seat in the lobby and quietly waited for police to arrest him, according to CBS Seattle.

Originally charged with both second-degree robbery and third-degree theft, Alsip saw his robbery charge dismissed, according to the Sheriff's Office website. Alsip remains in jail, having failed to pay a $40,000 bail on the theft charge.

According to The Oregonian, Alsip told officers he had robbed the bank in order to receive medical care in jail. Although he had no previous criminal record, Alsip had apparently been acting strangely in the days before the robbery. The 50-year-old homeless man asked random people for help and even called 911 on himself to "complain of various imaginary problems," reported The Oregonian.

Whether or not Alsip's health problems are legitimate, his plan to seek jailhouse healthcare may have been inspired by a similar robbery in North Carolina two years ago. At the time, James Verone told reporters that he asked the teller at a Gastonia, N.C., bank for $1 in an effort to get himself arrested, according to Mother Jones. The 59-year-old reportedly hoped to stay in jail just long enough to get free medical care for a host of conditions and then qualify for Social Security when he got out.