Richard James Verone`s robbery of a North Carolina bank earlier this month wasn`t the most traditional of hold ups. He didn`t approach the teller in a ski-mask and neglected to bring a weapon, a get-away driver or a gun. Instead, Verone entered the scene of the crime with two ruptured disks, a growth on his chest and a note demanding a single dollar bill. Verone says he needed a doctor and prison-provided health care was his only option. After handing a teller a note that read "This is a bank robbery and I need medical attention," Verone headed away from the banker and awaited authorities. "I started to walk away from the teller, then I went back and said, `I`ll be sitting right over there in the chair waiting for the police,`" Verone tells North Carolina TV station 9News. With growing medical problems and little money to his name, the 59-year-old Gastonia, NC native says he weighed his options and the June 9 "hold-up" seemed like the best way to better health. "I`m sort of a logical person and that was my logic," he told reporters after. Verone worked for Coca-Cola for nearly two decades and transitioned to a truck driver three years ago. After ending up jobless, Verone resorted to a part-time position as a convenience store clerk, but as his ailments added up, he knew cashing out customers for a few hours a week wouldn`t put enough money in his checkbook to get checked out by doctors. "The pain was beyond the tolerance that I could accept," he tells the Gaston Gazette. "I kind of hit a brick wall with everything." "If you don`t have your health you don`t have anything." Verone figured that a bank robbery would get him locked up long enough to collect Social Security benefits upon his release. In the meantime, he anticipates being treated by physicians for his conditions; ideally he hopes for back and foot surgery, as well as a diagnosis for the protrusion on his chest. "If it is called manipulation, then out of necessity because I need medical care, then I guess I am manipulating the courts to get medical care," he tells reporters. Because he only asked for a buck, though, Verone has been charged with larceny from a person, which, while still a felony, might not keep him locked up for too long. He tells the Gazette, however, that he will do it again if he has to. Verone`s bond has been reduced from $100,000 to $2,000 in his week behind bars. When he eventually ends up in front of a judge, he intends on representing himself.