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MAN ROBS BANK TO GET MEDICAL CARE IN JAIL
Some people who need medical care but can’t afford it go to the 
emergency room. Others just hope they’ll get better. .James Richard 
Verone robbed a bank.
Earlier this month, Verone, a 59-year-old convenience store clerk, 
walked into a Gastonia bank and handed a cashier a note, demanding 

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$1 and medical attention. Then he waited calmly for the police to 
show up.
Verone is now in jail and has an appointment with a doctor this 
week.
Verone’s problems started when he lost the job he’d held for 17 
years as a Coca Cola deliveryman, amid the economic downturn. He 
found a new job driving a truck, but it didn’t last. Eventually, he took 
a part-time position at the convenience store.
But Verone’s body wasn’t up to it. The bending and lifting made 
his back ache. He had problems with his left foot, making him limp.
He also suffered from arthritis.
So he hatched a plan. On July 9 (2011), he woke up, showered, 
ironed his shirt and mailed a letter to the Gazette, listing the return 
address as the Gaston County Jail.
“When you receive this, a bank robbery will have been committed 
by me. It is being committed by me for one dollar. I am of sound mind 
but not so much sound body,” Verone wrote in his letter.
Then Verone hailed a cab to take him to the bank. Inside, he 
handed the teller his $1 robbery demand.
The teller was so frightened that she had to be taken to the hos-
pital to be checked out. Verone, meanwhile, was taken to jail.
Because he only asked for $1, Verone was charged with larceny, 
not bank robbery.
In jail, Verone said he skips dinner to avoid too much contact with 
the inmates. He’s already seen some nurses and is scheduled to see a 
doctor on Friday.
Verone also presented the view that if the United States had a 
health-care system which offered people more government support, 
he wouldn’t have had to make the choice he did.
The Affordable Care Act, President Obama’s health-care overhaul 
passed by Congress last year, was designed to make it easier for 
Americans in situations like Verone’s to get health insurance. But 
most of its provisions don’t go into effect until 2014.
As it is, Verone said he thinks he chose the best of a bunch of bad 
options.