Criminal mastermind arrested for robbing same bank, twice

Armed with the knowledge that comes from damned dear experience, you go back in time and correct the terrible wrongs of your life. Old loves could be mended. Lost chances would be taken. It's something that most of us have dreamed of at one point in our lives or another.

While dwelling on such things might be a balm against the pain of wistful regrets, it is, as 50-year-old Brent Allen Drees of Wichita, Kansas discovered, an absolutely terrible idea when applied to bank robbery.

After spending 46 months in prison for bank robbery, Drees, having repaid his debt to society, was ready to leave the clink behind and start a new life. His time behind bars at an end, he celebrated his new-found freedom... by robbing a bank he'd already robbed back in 2011.

From the Wichita Eagle:

Drees allegedly robbed the Conway Bank at 121 E. Kellogg on Tuesday, giving the teller a note saying, "Give me $3,000 and you won't get hurt," a criminal affidavit states.

He was arrested Thursday afternoon in connection to the robbery after a Crime Stoppers tip led investigators to an area on the south side of Wichita, police Officer Paul Cruz said in a release.

Drees was released from Federal Bureau of Prisons custody in July 2017, prison records show. He had served a 46-month sentence for bank robbery, McAllister's release said.

Drees was dinged for robbing the E. Kellogg branch of Conway Bank back in 2011. It was his first conviction for bank robbery. The second time around, which he was only just released from last year, was for a foiled bank robbery attempt as well.

It's arguable that this pattern of recidivism could indicate that the prison system's doing nothing to prepare inmates for their return to society, or that Drees' returning to the scene of a former crime to commit EXACTLY THE SAME CRIME might be the only tool he has that would allow him to return to the structured life that prison affords. Whatever his reasons for robbing the same bank, twice, might be, one thing's clear: Drees might want to try a different vocation. His current one doesn't seem to agree with him.

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