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Great-grandmother Marilyn Devine had tears in her eyes when she walked out of the Allegheny County Jail and into the arms of her husband of 32 years.

Clinging to him Thursday evening, she apologized for robbing a West Mifflin bank. And although she spoke well of guards who watched over her in confinement, she said she thinks she has been punished enough.

"You don't know what stress it is to disgrace yourself and your family and spend four days in lockup, when you've been a good person your whole life," the 74-year-old Baldwin Borough woman said minutes after posting a $50,000 bond.

Earlier yesterday Devine waived her right to a preliminary hearing before West Mifflin District Judge Richard D. Olasz, who reduced her bond from $100,000 straight cash to $50,000 supported by real estate. Devine's family pledged the deed to their home.

"I just had a mental breakdown," she said of the incident that placed her in jail Monday. "I'm sorry that I did that and upset those young people. They were very professional about it. I wasn't out to intend to hurt anybody. I won't do anything like this again."

Police say Devine robbed the National City Bank in a supermarket off Lebanon Church Road with an unloaded 9 mm handgun and then led police on a 5.3-mile, 45-mph chase.

Prosecutors dropped four charges against Devine, and she will be arraigned May 23 on charges of robbery, fleeing and eluding police, possessing a firearm without a license, and possessing an instrument of a crime.

Her attorney, Noah Geary of Washington, Washington County, said a psychologist at the jail examined Devine and cleared her of any mental illness. He said he plans to have Devine undergo checkups by a doctor and a psychologist.

"She was under extreme duress when she committed this crime," Geary said. "It was a desperate act, perhaps a cry for help."

Raymond Devine, 77, has said his wife took out nearly $30,000 in loans in recent years to help a son who has legal and financial trouble. He said he learned of the loans only after she failed to make payments.

Susan McDade, a family friend, said Devine was acting strangely at a family gathering the day before the bank robbery.

"She's a fantastic cook and 'the hostess with the mostest,' " McDade said. "But that day she wasn't doing any of that. She wouldn't say what was wrong, but that's just the way she is. She doesn't complain about anything."

Family friends said Devine and her nine siblings were often homeless during her childhood in the 1940s after her father, a steelworker, lost his job. They lived in vacant houses in Mt. Oliver, without electricity and water, and often had little food. A retired registered nurse, Devine worked in a surgical MASH unit during the Korean War.

She said being in jail "wasn't bad."

"(The corrections officers) do the best they can. They're supposed to be disciplinarians, but they treat everybody fair."

Raymond Devine said he hadn't slept much since his wife's arrest and was happy to have her freed.

"I've got my girl back," he said. "We're always together. Separately we're nothing, but together, we're everything."

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