Action 3 News - Omaha, Nebraska News, Weather, and Sports | Former Bank Robber Now Takes Action To Stop Crime
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Omaha, NE - Dozens of shootings around Omaha in the last seven weeks have many people wondering, "What's going on?"
One man doesn't have to ask. He was a one-man crime wave, starting in Omaha and hitting three different states in just a few months in the early 90s. Troy Evans ended up in federal prison.
Now he's taking action to fight crime. He told Action 3 News reporter Kathy Sarantos Niver: "The worst thing that ever happened to me was being sent to prison. At the same time, it's the thing that literally saved my life."
Evans robbed banks to buy drugs. He says: "In the course of a year-and-a-half they completely took over my life."
His first robbery was in Omaha.
He kept going out of desperation: "Either I'd come out with enough money to feed my habit another 30 to 60 days or police would show up and I'd make them do what I didn't have the guts to do myself--suicide by police is what they call it today."
The FBI got him without shooting him and he was sentenced to 13 years in federal prison, with gang members and bombers: "Timothy McVeigh. Terry Nichols. People were killed over somebody cutting in front of them in the chow line. It doesn't get worse than that."
He persevered and came out with two college degrees.
Now he teaches bankers how to stop robberies.
And others that they can do anything, if they decide to: "I don't care what bumps, bruises or potholes life's thrown your way. Don't use this as an excuse to fail. Instead use this as motivators to succeed. Be the one to rise above it."
He says a lot of the violence we're seeing here is because of gangs and drugs.
He tells kids to not even experiment with drugs--he went from straight A student and star athlete to an addict who didn't care what he had to do to get his next fix.
