Senior robbed in brazen scam
Girl, 15, lied about collecting for charity, then snatched woman's wallet
When a woman in her late 70s heard a knock at her apartment door last April 15, she got up, grabbed her walker and slowly shuffled to the front door.
When she opened the door, two teenage girls were outside the Joyce Avenue apartment, located north of Morton Avenue. They had a sheet of paper with names written on it and told the elderly woman they were collecting money for the Canadian Cancer Society.
The woman went back into the apartment and retrieved her wallet, then returned to the door and donated $10 to the worthy cause.
As it turns out, the cause wasn't so worthy. The girls were not affiliated with the cancer society in any way and were simply there to take the woman's money.
They also weren't content with $10.
The elderly woman rested her wallet on her walker so she could turn and go back into the apartment. As she turned away, one of the girls snatched the wallet.
The theft happened between 6 and 7 p.m. A short time later, the woman noticed her wallet was missing and called the RCMP to report the crime.
By 8 p.m., the two girls had already used the woman's credit card to buy more than $1,000 worth of goods. They spent $144 at Payless Shoe Source and $889 at Winners.
Police viewed video surveillance from the apartment building and one of the stores and determined who the thieves were. The girls were arrested a short time later.
One of them appeared in Moncton youth court yesterday. The 15-year-old, who can't be named under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, was released after the original arrest, but picked up later for other crimes and has been in custody for the last two weeks.
She previously pleaded guilty to a half-dozen offences and was in front of Judge Irwin Lampert yesterday for sentencing.
Crown prosecutor Remi Allard told the court that after the wallet theft, the girl was also connected to a break and enter in the same neighbourhood in which many of the resident's belongings were stolen or damaged. The girl was placed under house arrest conditions while her matters were before the court, but she breached those conditions several times.
She was supposed to be baby-sitting her five-year-old sister one night, but Allard said she went out with a 40-year-old man and brought the little girl with her. The Crown said she returned home with the little girl at 1 a.m.
The teen told the judge she was watching a movie at her friend's house, adding that he's only 20. Lampert called her bluff and asked for the man's name so he could verify his age, but the girl said she didn't know his last name.
She also breached her court undertaking by leaving New Brunswick and travelling to Montreal. Her mother tracked her down there and the girl returned home by train, only to be arrested by police at the train station.
Lampert gave the girl 18 months' probation and ordered her to reside with her mother, obey the rules of the house and follow a curfew. He ordered her to have no contact with her victims and told her to try to either find work or go to school.
She must attend addiction services for assessment and treatment and has to perform 50 hours of community service.
More The News
Search Articles
More CE Network Sites & Partners:
Comments (2)
All comments are subject to the site Terms of Use. For a full commenting tutorial click here.
Our editorial team relies on filtering technology and our visitor community to identify inappropriate comments. In the event that a site user has submitted offensive content that has evaded our filter, please select the option to Flag As Inappropriate presented within the comment. Thank you for helping to keep this site clean.