American Notes the Homeless

Vernon Lamarr Clark walked into a San Diego bank two months ago determined to get in trouble. The would-be thief, who was unarmed, handed the nearest teller a note announcing a bank robbery and asking for cash. After receiving $40, Clark told a security guard to call the police and patiently waited to be arrested.

An unemployed iron worker who has been homeless for a year, Clark says he pulled the bank job because he wanted to find shelter. "I was tired and fed up with sleeping on the streets and picking through Dumpsters for food," he says.

Although a judge set his bail at only $5,000, Clark is content to remain in a federal prison and receive three square meals a day until his Jan. 14 trial date. If he is convicted of robbery, he could be guaranteed a home for up to 20 years. Clark is not the first person in San Diego to be driven to poverty- related crime: earlier this year an impoverished senior citizen held up another bank for $70 in order to buy medication for a heart condition.