Homesick Robber to be Sentenced Again

Walter Unbehaun has spent nearly all of his adult life in jail, so it's not surprising that he faces sentencing Thursday for yet another crime. His reason for robbing a bank is that he was homesick for prison. 

On Feb. 9 last year, he entered a Chicago-area bank with a cane but no disguise, displayed a loaded revolver in his waistband to a teller and told her softly over and over, "I don't want to hurt you." Then, with $4,178 in loot shoved in his pockets, he drove to a nearby motel and waited for police to arrive. Confronted by authorities in the motel parking lot, the bald, portly Unbehaun dropped his cane, raised his hands and startled police by his apparent joy at getting nabbed. He told them that he wanted to do something that would guarantee that he would spend the rest of his life in prison," an FBI affidavit said. One officer observed, "(He) was happy to be going home to prison." 

Now, the judge in Chicago sentencing Unbehaun faces a dilemma, prosecutor Sharon Fairly said in one filing: Sending Unbehaun to prison would be more reward than punishment to him, but setting him free would risk him committing another serious crime.