United States v. Stephen D. Lamb

EASTERBROOK, Circuit Judge.

Woefully equipped for his line of work, Stephen Lamb broke into a bank. All he had was a screwdriver, a pair of wire cutters, and a crowbar. They sufficed to damage the vault’s handle and locking mechanism, which only made entry harder. Lamb managed to stuff $350 from two coin vaults into a bag before being caught when police answered the burglar alarm, which Lamb had failed to disable. Sentencing is the only subject presented on appeal.

Section 2B2.1 of the Sentencing Guidelines provides the framework for bank burglaries. The base offense level is 12, and a table in…