A man on the run for 40 years turned himself in to police so he could get health care

A man who has been on the run from the law for nearly 40 years turned himself in to authorities on Monday because he wanted to go back to prison for the health care, according to NBC.

Clarence David Moore, 66, told authorities that he escaped from the Henderson County, North Carolina, Prison Unit - and two others before that - in the mid-1970s for stealing two television sets and had been living under the alias Ronnie Dickinson for 39 years.

He was a diabetic, though, and was partially paralyzed and unable to walk. Reports are mixed on whether his paralysis stemmed from a stroke or a car accident.

His deteriorating health had left him no choice but to turn himself in to receve medical treatment - he had no Social Security number under his alias, and therefore no medical coverage.

'I need to make this right and get through this,' Moore reportedly told Franklin County Sheriff Pat Melton.

Under Kentucky law, jails must take from their budget to pay for indigent prisoners' medical care.

"You can't make this up," Melton told NBC on Tuesday.

Moore's neighbors in Frankfurt said they had never noticed anything strange about him - for the last six years, he'd simply been the "frail, bearded man" next door.

"I'm shocked," one of Moore's former neighbors, Edward Jordan, told WLEX. "I can't believe it.

"He's a diabetic and I'm a diabetic," Jordan said. "And we'd sit on the porch and talk about that."

Moore was arraigned Tuesday after receiving undergoing a full medical examination and is being held without bond in the Franklin County Regional Jail.