They forgot to put the man who robbed Burger King in jail. For 13 years (5 photos)
In a world where one wrong decision can land you in jail for years, fate sometimes throws up incredible stories. The story of Cornelius "Mike" Anderson is not just a crime chronicle, but a real bureaucratic drama with a twist worthy of a movie adaptation. 
It all started in 1999 in St. Charles, Missouri. Mike and his accomplice lay in wait for the fast food manager, put a BB gun to his head – a kind of air gun that looks like a real gun – and stole $2,000 worth of cash. A witness remembered the license plate number of the car, and the cops were on the trail a couple of months later. In March 2000, the jury returned a verdict: guilty of armed robbery. The judge slapped 13 years.
Mike was released on bail for $25,000, appealed, but it was rejected – first by the appellate court, then by the Missouri Supreme Court in 2002. In theory, after that, he should have been locked up, but... nothing. The Department of Corrections thought he was already serving his sentence, and the court forgot to send the paper. 
And now Mike is free. He doesn't hide in basements, doesn't change his name, doesn't go to Mexico. He lives like a normal guy: gets married, raises his three children and a stepdaughter, opens a construction company, Anderson Construction and Investment. He works, pays taxes, coaches a children's soccer team, goes to church. The cops even pulled him over for speeding, but his records are clean.
Mike asked his lawyer: "What should I do?" He said: "Wait for a subpoena." Years passed, and he decided that the system had simply forgotten. "I'm not a fugitive," he would later say in an interview, "a fugitive hides. And I lived openly." Imagine: 13 years without handcuffs, building your life like a solid house, and somewhere in the papers you are supposedly sitting in a cell. 
The boom happened when the term formally ended, and the officials finally woke up: "Hey, where's our prisoner?" In the morning, a squad of eight marshals with shields and guns rolls up to Mike's house, block the street, and burst in before the eyes of the family. The wife and children are shocked - they didn't even know about the exemplary daddy's past. Mike is sent to prison. The public is exploding: social networks, petitions on Change.org with 35 thousand signatures, shows like This American Life on NPR. 
Even the robbery victim, manager Dennis, says: "Let them let him go, he doesn't rob anymore, he's got his life together." But Dennis suffered greatly: after that incident, he became paranoid, quit his job, his marriage fell apart. But even he was for Mike - they said the guy reformed himself, without going to prison. 
Lawyer Patrick Megaro is furious: he is filing a habeas corpus, complaining about the violation of rights - his client has been waiting for 13 years for them to come for him. Attorney General Chris Koster initially resists: "Do what you have to do", but then suggests that the freedom be counted as time served. In the end, after a long trial, the verdict was: "Mr. Anderson, you have become a good father, husband and taxpayer. We count 4,794 days of freedom as time served."
This case is unique. Mike Anderson has proven that it is possible to return to normal life without forced measures if you choose this path yourself. Mistakes in paperwork can ruin your life, or they can give you a second wind. The main thing is what choice you make yourself.
