Serial bank robber begs federal judge to keep him locked up after string of Florida thefts: ‘I love the life I have in prison’
By Anna YoungPublished Oct. 31, 2024, 8:02 p.m. ET
The serial thief targeted three banks just two weeks after he was released from federal prison for bank robbery.Bloomberg via Getty Images
A convicted serial bank robber begged a federal judge to keep him locked up for the maximum term after striking three establishments in Florida — just two weeks after he was released from prison for another bank robbery.
Terry Meach, 42, was sentenced last Thursday to 20 years in federal prison — the maximum for bank robbery — after pressing that extensive time behind bars would not only curb his urges and normalize his life but improve the public’s safety.
“Please, could you consider giving me the max or the most time so that I can get back to my normal life in a controlled environment? Prison keeps me from my own self-destruction and keeps the outside community safer,” the repeat offender wrote in a letter to US District Court Judge Rodney Smith in September, according to the Miami Herald.
“I know I’m going to mess up again. I always have the same results, 100% truth. I love the life I have in prison. I made a family and good jobs. Please, understand me. I know right from wrong, and I’m not crazy at all,” Meach added. “I just know myself better than anyone else does.”
The thief confessed to stealing $2,419 from a Truist Bank in Hollywood on Feb. 23 after he demanded money from a teller and claimed he had a gun, the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida said in a news release.
Four days later, Meach entered Fifth Third Bank in Fort Lauderdale and told the teller he had a bomb before fleeing and stealing $2,379 from a Truist Bank down the street.
He also told the Truist banker he had a gun during the heist, prosecutors said.
The recidivist bandit was also convicted in April 2012 for robbing a TD Bank in Fort Lauderdale, and attempting to steal from Suntrust Bank in Miami, for which he was incarcerated for nearly four years.
Eight days after his release in March 2016, Meach robbed another Suntrust Bank in Fort Lauderdale, prosecutors said.
Two days after that, he stole from a Chase Bank in Doral.
He was slapped with eight years in federal prison and released on Feb. 9 –14 days before he committed his latest string of crimes, prosecutors said.
Meach pleaded guilty to two counts of bank robbery and one count of attempted bank robbery.
