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BELLEVIEW, Fla. (WOFL FOX 35) - Belleview Police said a woman wrote $32,000 in checks and cashed them at the Bank of America on Abshier Boulevard. Police also said bank employees played a role in stopping her.
Tamara Miller, 31, of Belleview, is facing a felony grand theft charge after police allege that over the course of more than a month, she wrote and cashed those checks that belonged to an 83-year-old man.
The Belleview Police report said the man had trouble recalling his exact age or day of the week. Lt. Lawrence Bryan with the police department said, “She forged them herself. She wrote the entire check. The victim never had anything to do with filling out anything or signing a check.”
The report said the theft was caught by bank employees that felt the elderly man was being exploited. Miller was arrested at the bank Monday. “We would’ve never gotten called if the bank tellers had not noticed something and called us,” said Lt. Bryan.
Miller wasn’t his caregiver, but police say it appears she, for some reason, struck up a friendship with the man at his Ocala home. It’s still being investigated how she got his checkbook. In the report, she said claimed the man gifted $8,000 to her. She claimed to give the majority of $7,300 dollars back to him. She also told police she “didn’t mean to do it. It just happened, ” and that she “liked having the money to do whatever she needed to do.”
According to records, her bond is set at $5,000.