Former UK employee became bank robber to pay for mother’s nursing home stay

The arrest of a University of Kentucky employee for multiple Lexington bank robberies made headlines in 2012.

In a new article, the Kentucky Kernel has talked to convicted serial bank robber Crystal R. Little in the Casey County Jail. In the article, “The woman behind the mask,” Little describes why she turned to bank robbery, recalls the moment police came to arrest her and describes her life behind bars.

An excerpt from the article, by Will Wright:

“It was June 12, 2010, and Crystal Little was about to rob her first bank. Little’s mother had two days before the nursing home would evict her for insufficient funds, and neither Little nor her siblings had the money to keep her there. Little still had two weeks before starting her job at UK, where she would work until her arrest in July 2012.

“Little said she thinks of herself as a “fixer.” That started when she was a child, caring for her parents while her brothers were off getting into trouble...

“So when the nursing home said she had two days to get the money or her mother would be kicked out, she had to find a solution. The ‘fix’ this time was waiting at the Forcht Bank on Southland Drive.”

Read the full article here: The woman behind the mask

While a student at UK, Little worked on the staff of the Kentucky Kernel. Little was also a newsroom intern at the Herald-Leader in 2006, and she then was a temporary news assistant at various times between September 2006 and January 2008.

This story was originally published April 26, 2016 at 11:33 AM with the headline "Former UK employee became bank robber to pay for mother’s nursing home stay."