Throughout summer 2025, claims spread online about a North Carolina man who once robbed a bank for a single dollar in order to go to jail and obtain healthcare.
The rumor spread as concerns increased over cuts to Medicare following U.S. President Donald Trump's signing of his 2025 budget bill.
Users shared versions of the claim on social media platforms such as Threads (archived), X, Instagram (archived) and Reddit, with some users pointing out how the alleged story shined a light on the flaws of the U.S. healthcare system.
The claim that a North Carolina man once robbed a bank of $1 in order to go to jail and receive medical care was true. The man's name was James Richard Verone, and the incident occurred on June 9, 2011, at RBC Centura Bank in Gastonia, North Carolina. Verone was 59 at the time.
Snopes obtained the arrest record and court documents from Gaston County that confirm Verone's date of arrest and his misdemeanor charge of larceny from a person.
According to the official report:
Subject entered the RBC Centurion [sic] bank located at 500 S New Hope Rd Gastonia, NC and demanded money from the teller Kathy Zimmerman. Subject asked for $1[.]00 and the teller complied with the subject's demand due to being in fear of the subject. Subject remained in the bank until police arrived
(Gaston County, North Carolina)
The case received international attention at the time, with reports ranging from local news to ABC News, NPR, Yahoo, the Los Angeles Times and British newspaper The Times.
The arrest "followed three years of hardship for Verone, who after losing his job of 17 years as a Coca-Cola delivery man tried desperately to land steady work," according to ABC News. The outlet reported that Verone had chronic back pain and limped due to pain in his left foot, and that he took action after finding a lump on his chest.
"The pain was beyond the tolerance that I could accept. I kind of hit a brick wall with everything," Verone told the Gaston Gazette after his arrest. According to the local newspaper, Verone exhausted options available to him, including filing for disability, applying for early Social security and Selling his furniture, before executing his plan.
"Verone didn't want to scare anyone," the Gaston Gazette reported, but according to local TV news outlet WCNC, the teller who fielded Verone's request told the 911 dispatcher that Verone was armed and threatening. "He can hear everything I'm saying, so I'm in a back room," the teller reportedly told the dispatcher. "Please hurry."
According to the Gaston Gazette, the teller was checked out at the hospital for a spike in blood pressure afteward and Verone expressed regret for causing her pain.
ABC News reported Verone "hoped his $1 bank robbery would earn him a three-year jail sentence, during which he could undergo surgery on his back and his foot and have a painful lump on his chest diagnosed and treated."
According to an interview with WCNC, Verone said of his plan, "I'm sort of a logical person and that was my logic, what I came up with." According to Verone and the documents obtained by Snopes, the 2011 incident was his first offense.
In addition to being a first-time offender, the monetary value stolen was below $1,000. According to North Carolina law, that means the resulting charge is classified as a Class 1 misdemeanor rather than a felony.
Verone's stay in prison was not the three-year stint he had hoped for. In 2012, local news outlet WBTV reported that Verone had been released from jail after striking a deal with prosecutors and was working on a book about his experience in hopes of raising some money.
Verone told WBTV that although he had some regrets about the robbery, "It was worth it, I had no other direction to go, I was afraid for my life."
A search for a book written by Verone came up empty, and it was unclear whether he published his account.
There have been a variety of stories with similar circumstances reported following Verone's arrest: a 2012 report about an a recently released man reoffending so he could go back to prison for leukemia treatment; a 2013 report about an elderly South Carolina man who was released from a long stint in prison only to reoffend in the hopes of spending the rest of his life on the inside; and a 2023 report of a Utah man who robbed a bank for $1 in the hopes of being sent to federal prison.