BAY MINETTE, ALABAMA - Sixty-seven-year-old Thomas Jacob Reinman came up with a novel plan for his retirement. He decided to rob banks. <br>
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He reasoned if he were caught, a clean federal prison with free food, medicine and rent would beat spending his final years in shelters or on the streets. <br>
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Now Reinman finds himself behind bars at the Baldwin County Correctional Center in Bay Minette. He is awaiting a transfer to a federal holding facility. <br>
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At least two federal prison officials have expressed doubts about his declared motive, but Reinman -- a journeyman construction worker and also a veteran bank robber and former convict -- contends he had no future otherwise. <br>
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Reinman was arrested in December 2001, minutes after the robbery of the McGregor Square branch of AmSouth Bank in west Mobile. He was sentenced to eight years. <br>
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He soon also confessed to a robbery a week earlier in Columbus, Georgia, at a Regions Bank branch. He is still awaiting punishment in that case.
