Husband who robbed bank to avoid wife given probation

KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- A 70-year-old man who said he robbed a Kansas City, Kansas, bank so he could get away from his wife blamed his actions on depression.

A federal judge on Tuesday sentenced Lawrence John Ripple to probation.

Ripple went to the Bank of Labor - a block from police headquarters - last September. He gave a note to a teller saying he had a gun and was demanding money. After he was given it, Ripple waited for police.

Court records indicate Ripple wrote the robbery note in front of his wife and told her he would rather be in jail than at home.

The Kansas City Star reports Ripple told the judge Tuesday that heart surgery left him depressed and unlike himself before he robbed the bank.