When people are stressed for long periods of time, they lose the ability to plan ahead. You literally can only worry about the present.
The result is crimes like this people read about and say "how can they be so stupid they didn't think they'd get caught".
It worked in the moment, and a month later to someone with this much stress is a lifetime away.
This effect is responsible for a lot of our crime. And we can get rid of it by actually having a safety net so people don't get in the trap of only worrying about today.