WPBN: According to Sunshine State law enforcement, a Florida housekeeper who was previously trusted with keeping the peace in the home for her octogenarian boss was recently taken into custody after an altercation on Christmas Eve turned into a furious act of thievery and physical assault.
According to Brevard County authorities and court documents, Heather Nelson, 29, is charged with a long list of charges, including grand theft, robbery, fraud, forgery, aggravated battery, and delivering a counterfeit instrument. A single misdemeanor fraud accusation is also against her.
The victim apparently failed to give her cleaner the $500 Christmas bonus that was demanded, which led to the incident.
According to the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office, the 83-year-old victim suffered a swollen wrist when the defendant allegedly stole an even larger haul after the bonus was rejected.
“She actually took the check by force, [she] took some Christmas cards that had money in them, took some debit and credit cards, left the residence, forged some signatures and attempted to take quite a bit of money from this woman,” sheriff’s office’s public information officer Tod Goodyear stated.
However, according to the sheriff’s office, Nelson’s alleged crimes went beyond the theft of the checkbook.
Investigators claim that the defendant wrote a check for $1,400, much more than the amount of the potential bonus, and used the stolen lucre to pay her past-due rent.
“Based on what she was using the monies for, she was in financial trouble,” Goodyear continued “Maybe she just saw this as the only way possibly out of it, but to take advantage of our elderly seniors is not what you do.”
Due to the time needed to track down her alleged financial misconduct, Nelson was not captured until over two weeks after the initial event.
According to the sheriff’s office, Nelson was arrested on January 7 after deputies tracked down the money trail following the clearance of the purportedly fake check and the posting of credit card transactions.
After the defendant was arrested, the sheriff’s office criticized her in a news release that was several paragraphs long and had numerous Dr. Suess allusions.
“Now while the original Grinch story may have ended with everyone in ‘Whoville’ being happy and sharing their Christmas with the Grinch, this one ends with Agent Sherrill not being happy at all about what happened and going to get a warrant,” according to the press release.
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According to the authorities, the housekeeper had been working for a long time and can be trusted.
“The elderly are scammed, they are taken advantage of by other people a lot of times because they have some diminished capacity, or they’re very trusting,” Goodyear stated. “They grew up in a time when people trusted each other.”
Records from the Brevard County Jail indicate that Nelson was released on January 9 after being detained and held on a bond of thirty thousand dollars.
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