Raymond Devine's visit to the American Legion hall was cut short last year when the family mechanic ran over from across the street and announced he'd heard on his scanner that an elderly woman driving his wife's car had just robbed a bank.

"Never in God's world would I have thought she would have done anything like that," the 79-year-old said yesterday after his wife was sentenced for the $5,960 armed heist in West Mifflin.

But three tellers from the National City branch described the masked woman toting a 9 mm pistol as calm and deliberate. She told them to hand over all their money and count it, insisted they not use exploding dye packs and kept the gun trained on the employees as she moved from one cashier to the next.

Marilyn Edna Devine, a 76-year-old grandmother from Baldwin Borough, was given 23 months of house arrest and 20 years' probation and ordered to pay $10,000 for the duress her victims suffered and any treatment they need.

The retired nurse pleaded guilty in April to robbery, two firearms violations and fleeing or eluding police. She faced up to $55,000 in fines and 34 years in prison.

Mrs. Devine told Common Pleas Judge Donald E. Machen she robbed the Century Square Shop 'n Save branch March 6, 2006, because her youngest son, who has bipolar disorder, had said the night before he was going to commit suicide because of financial woes.

The following morning Mrs. Devine took her husband's unloaded pistol from his sock drawer and headed to the mall. With a hooded coat and a black-and-gold Steelers scarf masking her face, she held up the bank and then led West Mifflin and Baldwin police on a short chase, weaving through slow traffic, until a Baldwin tow truck driver, who was also tuned into the police scanner, blocked her way.

Mr. Devine, who was unable to see his wife for days, put up the deed to their home to cover her $50,000 bond so she could be released from the Allegheny County Jail.

In court yesterday, Mrs. Devine apologized to the bank employees, but said she didn't think they appeared traumatized by her actions at the time.

"They were nonchalant. I really didn't think I scared them that much at the time," she said.

Her husband, an elder son and a former co-worker testified to her kind, generous character.

Mrs. Devine then stood by while a series of bank staffers recounted what the day was like for them.

"You don't remember my face but I'm haunted by yours, your pale blue eyes," said Janelle Drecnik, 25, who had been a teller for just three days when the defendant robbed her. At one point, she thought the robbery was a training stunt but then realized how terrified her co-workers were.

Though Ms. Drecnik towered over her attacker in the courtroom she said she was afraid to stand near Mrs. Devine, who is well under five feet and wore her white hair swept back in bobby pins.

Ms. Drecnik testified she had to tolerate "the ridicule of people laughing that I got robbed by a grandmother," adding she still has nightmares about that day.

Former teller Timothy Wolfgang, who was robbed first said, Mrs. Devine "walked in with a gun and she pointed it at our face like she wanted to kill us."

The judge told Mrs. Devine, "I'm surprised at your remark that there was no harm to the victims." He recognized that the defendant was later diagnosed as clinically depressed, which could have skewed her perception at the time of the attack.

Still, he said she should have sought help for her son rather than wreaking havoc on others. He ordered her to continue counseling and medication as recommended and prohibited her from contacting the victims or the bank.

Her attorney, Noah Geary, told the judge Mrs. Devine had dedicated her life to helping others, serving two tours of duty in the Air Force and attending patients in the dementia unit at the V.A. Hospital. The heist was a horrible aberration, he said.

Her 42-year-old son, Michael, said his mother wouldn't give up on his 40-year-old brother even after his stepfather and three brothers had cut him off for being manipulative. He told a crowd of reporters after the hearing that robbing banks was out of character for her.

"It was wrong and rational people wouldn't do things like that," he said. "I know there's a lot of people who say, 'Go ahead, throw her in jail.' I almost wish that she would go to jail just to appease everybody's thinking on this," Michael Devine said.

After an Allegheny County probation officer fitted Mrs. Devine with an electronic monitoring ankle bracelet, the officer told her, "This is the worst day. Everything's gonna be OK from here on."

Mrs. Devine joked that under house arrest she would no longer be able to "go down in the back woods and pull out the weeds down there," lamenting that "they'll have to go for another two years."

Mr. Devine was more reserved and solemn.

"We've been together for 35 years," he said, explaining that he planned to stand by her "now and forever."