Prison for robber who stopped for cigarette

AMBRIDGE, Pa., Oct. 23 (UPI) -- A Pennsylvania bank robber who took time out of fleeing police to get a cigarette from construction workers was sentenced to prison.

Paul Carman, 38, who previously served a prison sentence for a 2008 robbery at the same bank, was sentenced Wednesday to 10 years in prison for the Oct. 4, 2013, robbery at a Huntington National Bank branch in Ambridge.

The court heard Carman fled the bank on foot and came across a group of construction workers in an alley. The suspect asked the workers for a cigarette, and he was given one by a man who told him police were seeking a man wearing a cap and a blue shirt.

Carman then abandoned his cap and shirt in a dumpster before continuing to flee, the court heard. He was arrested less than 45 minutes after the robbery, police said.

U.S. District Judge Gustave Diamond denied a request for leniency from Carman, who told the court he suffers from addictions to heroin and alcohol.