A woman who was recently released from prison in Oregon robbed a bank in Wyoming only to throw the cash up in the air outside the building and sit down to wait for police, authorities said Friday.
Investigators say 59-year-old Linda Patricia Thompson told them she wanted to go back to prison.
Thompson said she had suffered facial fractures after strangers beat her at a Cheyenne park last weekend.
She said she couldn’t get a room at a homeless shelter and decided to rob the bank Wednesday because she could no longer stay on the streets, court records say.
She faces a detention hearing Tuesday on a bank robbery charge and doesn’t have an attorney yet.
FBI Special Agent Tory Smith said in court documents that Thompson entered a US Bank branch in Cheyenne and handed a teller a cardboard note that said, “I have a gun. Give me all your money.”
The teller turned over thousands of dollars.
Outside, Thompson threw money into the air and even offered some to people passing by, Smith stated. He added that Cheyenne police Lt. Nathan Busek said he found Thompson with a large sum of money when he arrived at the bank.
“Lt. Busek asked Thompson what was going on, and Thompson replied, ‘I just robbed the bank, I want to go back to prison,'” Smith wrote.
Thompson had been serving time at Coffee Creek Correctional Facility in Wilsonville, Oregon, for a second-degree robbery conviction in Union County until her release in June, Betty Bernt, communications manager with the Oregon Department of Corrections, said Friday.
Thompson told investigators then that she didn’t want to be released and advised the Oregon state parole office that she would not do well on parole.
An attempt to reach Thompson’s parole officer for comment wasn’t successful on Friday.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
THAT IS SAD, SHE LEARNED NO SKILLS IN PRISON, SO SHE COULD BE EMPLOYED. WENT BACK TO BEING HOMELESS.
Very sad. But sadder truth is she did learn survival skills in jail society and did whatever job assigned well and got feed, protected, got along…was probably also trained for similar position at Wallmart or Hotel, but once outside job competition is fierce, finding shelter worse and food … she was unprepared to deal with society’s homeless or society’s distain of homeless … and had no skills for that!!! beat to a pulp. Sounds loud and clear to me, prison is preferable to homeless.
She wants to return to prison because
She will Get. Free. 3 meals aday. Warm.bed at night. Just a Lazy. Bum
I could understand someone wanting to go back to prison because of the air condition environment, big screen color t.v. three good balanced meals a day, free eye glasses on demand, free dental, all these things controlled by ACLU which checks on all prisons on a regular basis making sure that prisoners are not abused and have most of the comforts of home. Don’t get me wrong, I would never want to stay one night in a prison-BUT- for people who regularly do crime this is much better than being out on the street, working a regular job, paying taxes, etc., and trying to be a good citizen. Most of the prison population are repeat offenders, I know this because I have friends that work in the prison system. It is very hard to get reformed in any prison when you are around the scum of the earth 24/7–some do make it out for good and stay clean but it will depend on family help and there desire to stay clean.