I Robbed Banks in College — Then Went to Prison Twice | Alex Harper

Locked In with Ian Bick

Ian Bick

Society & Culture

4.8 • 745 Ratings

🗓️ 22 December 2025

⏱️ 135 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Alex Harper grew up in Cleveland, Ohio with a good family and a normal upbringing, but at just 16 years old he made a decision that would change his life forever. While still in high school and later in college, Alex began robbing banks, eventually landing on the radar of federal authorities and being sent to federal prison for the first time. After his release, he tried to turn his life around, but bad decisions and old patterns pulled him back in, leading to more bank robberies and a second prison sentence. In this episode, Alex shares how he went from a regular kid to a repeat federal inmate, what federal prison was really like, and how he eventually found his purpose and truly turned his life around. _____________________________________________ #TrueCrime #PrisonStories #FederalPrison #BankRobbery #LifeAfterPrison #CrimeStory #RedemptionStory #LockedInWithIanBick _____________________________________________ Thank you to K9S.ORG for sponsoring this episode: Donate anytime at https://k9s.org/ Connect with Alex Harper: https://www.instagram.com/votealexharper/?hl=en Hosted, Executive Produced & Edited By Ian Bick: https://www.instagram.com/ian_bick/?hl=en https://ianbick.com/ Shop Locked In Merch: http://www.ianbick.com/shop _____________________________________________ Timestamps: 00:00 Robbing Banks at 16 – How It All Started 01:35 First Arrest, Probation & Learning the System 04:22 Life After Prison: Supervision, Temptation & Pressure 06:00 Family, Childhood & Where Things Went Wrong 09:00 Early Gambling Addiction & Sports Betting Obsession 13:25 High School Double Life & First Bank Robbery 15:53 Escalation: More Robberies & How He Avoided Getting Caught 21:22 Bank Robbery Tactics, Mistakes & Hard Lessons Learned 25:54 College Life, Personality & Living Two Lives 29:44 Law School Dreams vs. Gambling Addiction 35:23 Getting Caught: The Moment Everything Fell Apart 41:31 First Time in Prison: Survival, Hustling & Reality Check 53:54 Running Gambling Operations Behind Bars 01:03:12 Released From Prison… Then Slipping Back 01:13:20 Second Sentence & Destroying Family Relationships 01:27:00 Depression, Accountability & Choosing Change 01:37:20 Life After Prison: Recidivism, Struggles & Reality 01:55:24 Finding Purpose, Giving Back & Redefining Success 02:08:00 Why the System Makes It Hard to Stay Free (Final Thoughts) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	I started robbing banks when I was 16.
0:01.6	So now you're 21 years old.
0:02.9	How do you end up getting caught?
0:04.0	Botch bank robbery is what happened.
0:05.6	What were you thinking when you got out of prison that first time?
0:07.8	What was your plan?
0:08.6	I was like, man, I'm missing something in my life.
0:10.5	So now I hit the bank. And then the adrenaline rushed into the first bank. I was like, that's what I've been missing. He grew up with a good family, went to college, and had every opportunity to live a normal life.
0:20.2	But at 16 years old, Alex Harper started robbing Banks a decision that would send him
0:25.2	to federal prison twice and force him to either change everything or lose it all.
0:33.4	Alex, welcome to Locked In.
0:34.6	Thanks so much for coming on the show today.
0:36.0	Thank you very much for having me, man.
0:37.4	Yeah, I appreciate you, man.
0:38.7	You spent a couple days in the city with your family. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I just came back from, I just drove up from New York City. And I was saying, you know, I was starting to tell you a story. So the first time I went to New York, I was fresh home. I got out. I was probably maybe home.
0:54.1	I was out of halfway house, so I was maybe home a couple months
0:56.7	and I wanted to go see my uncle. was fresh home I got out I was probably maybe home I was out of half-way house I was maybe home a
0:55.8	couple months and I wanted to go see my uncle and my son was meeting me up there it was like
1:00.4	supposed to be like this great you know thing getting off the freeway please pull me over
1:05.8	just getting off the freeway this again this is the first time as an adult in New York
1:09.8	police pull me over they're like hey you know step of the car. And then when you're on probation, especially federal probation, once they run your ID, probation comes up, comes up at your own supervised lease. And then any, which shouldn't happen, but collateral sanctions for a felon, any car you're in is allowed to be searched when you're on supervision, when you're a federal supervision.
1:29.3	So as I'm literally just showing up in New York,
	...

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