According to WVLT News, a Knoxville woman was arrested for allegedly taking advantage of a woman’s cognitive state in order to get money to purchase crack cocaine.
Officers responded to an apartment on Sunday around 4:30 p.m. for a welfare check inquiry on a 70-year-old woman diagnosed with dementia, according to officials.
When officers arrived, the woman’s relatives reportedly notified them that a “friend” and neighbor, Linda Brown, who was supposed to be caring for the woman, had stolen nearly $300 from her.
According to the report, the woman with dementia mentioned that she recalled going to the super market with Brown and being put in a corner, but she did not recall leaving with any groceries.
Officers went to Brown’s house after the woman and her family showed them the debit card transactions. When the 52-year-old woman saw the officers, she allegedly “immediately started to cry.”
Investigators went inside Brown’s home, where she admitted to taking care of Sharp “due to her diminished mental condition,” according to the documents.
Brown allegedly told officers that she went to the grocery store 4 times on purpose to steal money from the woman’s debit card.
Officers said she told them it was all spent on crack cocaine, which she smoked in an apartment with another individual.
Brown was charged with fraud and financial exploitation of a vulnerable adult.
