This happened in 2011, can you imagine how it is now?

In 2011, a man named Richard James Verone walked into a bank in Gastonia, North Carolina, handed the teller a note asking for a single dollar, and then sat down to wait for police. He wasn’t trying to escape. He wasn’t trying to steal anything. He was trying to get medical care.

At 59, he had no job, no insurance, a painful growth in his chest, and damaged discs in his back. He later explained that prison was the only place he could think of where he’d be guaranteed treatment.

He was charged and given a multi‑year sentence. While incarcerated, he finally received the surgeries and care he couldn’t afford outside. When he was released, he said he didn’t regret what he’d done.

A man in the United States robbed a bank for one dollar because prison healthcare was more accessible than seeing a doctor.