Georgia authorities are on the hunt for a caregiver who’s facing serious charges following a shopping spree. Nah, they’re not accusing her of shoplifting. The cops say her shopping haul came at the cost of a very vulnerable individual.
Briauna Michelle Powell, 24, is at-large for a series of suspicious transactions that happened over the course of February and March. The Stone Mountain native was described as a healthcare assistant at Visiting Angels who was responsible for the care of an 82-year-old woman who suffered dementia and Alzheimer’s, per Channel 2 Action News.
A police report says the patient was moved from Visiting Angels in Tucker to another senior living facility upon the advancing of her illnesses. She was also assigned a power of attorney. However, on Feb 8, the power of attorney noticed something suspicious: a fraud alert from Truist for a $236.37 purchase from Shein. The purchase was made on the patient’s Mastercard, police said.
Following that, the typical steps were taken and both the transaction and the card were cancelled. Though, the investigation into the fraud charge only opened up the discovery of even more fraudulent transactions.
Between Feb. 19 and March 6, police found six unauthorized transactions on the patient’s account, including one bill of over $1,000 at Lowes, the purchase of a car and rent payments, per FOX 5 Atlanta. There was even an attempt to open a new account in the woman’s name.
Officers tracked the suspicious activity to the one person who was ordered to care for the woman: Powell. They also found that while working at the facility, she tried to scam two other patients. Police then issued a warrant for her arrest.
“I don’t know how she thought she’d get away with it. Maybe she thought, because they were elderly and they couldn’t care for themselves, so they wouldn’t notice. If you’re preying on the people that can’t take care of themselves, we take that seriously, and we want to make sure she’s held accountable,” said Suwanee Police Capt. Robert Thompson via FOX.
Though, she still hasn’t been arrested yet. When the cops do eventually find her, she’ll be facing multiple counts of ID fraud and elder exploitation. Suwanee police are asking the public for any information to help locate Powell.