Authorities say convicted bank robber J.L. Hunter "Red" Rountree isn't letting old age stand in his way. The 91-year-old Texas man is back behind bars, accused of robbing his third bank in five years.
| Maybe he should take up shuffleboard. Or checkers... |
Police say Rountree walked into a branch of First American Bank in Abilene about 10 a.m. Tuesday, demanded money from a teller and passed over a large envelope with "ROBBERY" written on it. He left in a car parked near the bank, but a witness got the license plate, which police tracked to an address in Goldthwaite, 110 miles southeast of Abilene. About a half-hour later, Rountree was pulled over by officers 16 miles south of Abilene on U.S. 84 on his way home.
| "Watch him, Mahoney! I think he might make a run for it!" |
On Dec. 9, 1998, one week before his 87th birthday, Rountree was arrested in Biloxi, Miss., minutes after he robbed a bank. He was eventually given three years probation, fined $260 and told to leave Mississippi.
| "Get the hell out, Grampaw, and don't come back!" |
In October 1999, he was arrested outside a NationsBank in Pensacola, Fla., after giving a teller a note that said "ROBBERY" written in red ink and telling her, "Give me the $100s." He was convicted of bank robbery and sentenced to three years in prison, becoming the oldest inmate in the Florida prison system. |