For much of his adult life, Mike Anderson has done one thing: wait. For the phone call, the knock on the door, even a letter.

But they never came.

He carried on with his mundane life, getting married, raising his four children, forming his own building business and coaching the local kids’ football team.

Then, after more than a decade, his past – and the law – finally caught up with him.

For Anderson was a convicted armed robber who should have been behind bars serving 13 years after committing a terrifying heist .

But, bungling authorities had simply FORGOTTEN to send him to prison.

He was handed a 10-year free pass when he was released on bail pending an appeal.

For when the case was heard – and dismissed – no one bothered to find him and pack him off to prison.

Even more remarkably, Anderson had reminded them he was still at large, by sending them his new address.

Today however, the 36-year-old church-goer is behind bars at last, nine months into his sentence, after the foul-up was finally spotted.

Anderson, whose full name is Cornealious Michael, has now been told it was all “a clerical error”.

Speaking from prison he said: “I had this sense in me that everything was OK, no matter what was gonna happen, that everything was gonna be OK, and, to this day, I still have that.”

His positivity is remarkably considering he is now not scheduled for release until 2026 when he will be 50 years old.

However, since his story was made public it has split opinion and created a huge legal backlash - after all, he has not served his sentence.

A petition urging his release has received more than 30,000 signatures while prosecutors admit he is rehabilitated and even his victim says he hopes Anderson will be freed.

The astonishing tale came to light after an armed SWAT team surrounded Anderson’s home in St Louis last July.

He had grown to become a pillar of his local community, a prominent figure helping young children and a church volunteer.

He had built his own home, got married, had four children, paid taxes and helped provide jobs through his businesses in the building trade.

But that morning, as he was waking up at 6.30am to feed his two-year-old daughter, he heard a bang on his front door and someone shouting “Hey, open up the door”.

He asked who they were and they told him it was US marshals.

Seeing eight armed police, dressed in protective body suits and carrying riot shields, Anderson unlocked the door.

One of them told him he was supposed to have been in prison 13 years ago.

By midday, after his daughter had been taken in to care as he was home alone with her, the father-of-four was in state prison.

Anderson described the whole ordeal as a “living nightmare” adding the only thing he could think about was his wife and children.

Over the coming days the bizarre story unfolded.

Andersons had been found guilty of carrying out an armed robbery on August 15, 1999 in St. Charles, Missouri, after he and an accomplice robbed a Burger King manager at gunpoint of £1,300 while he was attempting to deposit the money in a night deposit box at a bank.

A witness saw the then-22-year-old escaping in a car and reported the license plate number to the police – it was registered to Anderson.

Although police never recovered the weapon, they searched his apartment and found a brochure for Beretta semiautomatic pistols.

The jury returned a verdict of guilty and Anderson was sentenced to a total of 13 years in prison in 2002.

But, after lodging an ultimately unsuccessful series of appeals, he had been released on bail for £17,000 and provided state officials with his new address.

At which point, incredibly, it appears he was simply forgotten about.

Anderson says he suspected all along his case had been overlooked and asked his former attorney what he should do.

His lawyer, who has since retired, told him it was a mistake and that he should be prepared to be taken into custody as they would realise.

But he said, day-by-day, month-by-month, year-by-year nothing happened.

Until last summer when, if Anderson had gone to prison originally, he would have been freed.

Instead, that’s when the parole board realised it was attempting to release a man who’d never been behind bars.

Now, as he waits in prison, Anderson’s attorneys have filed a motion to have him released, arguing incarcerating him now is cruel and unusual punishment and that the state waited too long to put him behind bars.

They note that even the man who was robbed back in 1999 has said Anderson doesn’t deserve imprisonment now.

The state attorney general has until this week to respond, and a court could schedule a hearing next month.

Carpenter Anderson said he is “overwhelmed” but also embarrassed by his predicament but added he cannot thank people enough for their support including his prison guards and fellow inmates.

Equally his wife, who has now been left to raise their children alone, is baffled by the mistake adding she is struggling to survive.

LaQonna, who he married in 2007, said: “I think about that all the time. Every day.”

Governor Jay Nixon has received a petition from Anderson’s lawyer, Patrick Megaro, asking he grant clemency.

Mr Megaro said: “I’m not saying a 13-year sentence is cruel and unusual. I’m saying enforcement of a 13-year sentence 13 years later, making it a 26-year sentence, is cruel and unusual.

“The state consented to Mr. Anderson’s bail pending appeal, for them to turn around and say ‘we didn’t know’ is completely wrong.

“They take no responsibility for the fact that for 13 years the Missouri Department of Corrections had a file on Cornealious Anderson as a prisoner and nobody picked it up or even bothered to look at it until July 2013.

“This man is not a fugitive. He didn’t try to hide.”

Authorities seem just as flummoxed. Prosecutor Tim Lohmar for St. Charles County said he was puzzled how the mistake was made: “My first reaction was, how did this happen?

“And somebody messed up. Somebody messed up big time.”

He added there was no question that Anderson is a rehabilitated and responsible man today but said, “It’s very difficult for me to say, ‘We can create an exception, and we can allow somebody who has found a way – whether it was by his own doing or otherwise – to not have to serve the sentence’.”

Even his victim has said he supports Anderson despite the devastating impact it had on his life.

Known only as Dennis he said after the attack he became paranoid the robbers would come after him, forcing him to quit his job and live almost as recluse.

As his marriage crumbled his daughter read about the crime while in school without knowing her father was the victim.

She came home and told Dennis about the case and then asked him for his opinion about it.

It was then he said they should leave “leave the man alone”.

The former Burger King boss said: “He wasn’t out robbing other people, doing this, that, and the other.

“He seemed to have gotten his life together. You’ve got to give the guy a little bit of slack. I mean, yeah, he screwed up when he was little.

“But the law dropped the ball. The law ought to drop it completely. They need to leave the man alone.”

Asked about his chances, Anderson said from his cell: “I’m a man of faith, and I believe my chances are in the hands of God, 100% favourable my way, and I have to believe that.

“I can’t believe anything else.”

Yet again Anderson can do only one thing. Wait.

•Credit (except headline): Daily Mirror.

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