Woman masqueraded as dead mom to collect pension checks
Detectives say Loewen B. Craft collected $145,000 in retirement funds.
Craft's adopted daughter says the scheme had been going on for years.
"It is bizarre," said Arielle Stanwyck. "She would wear large glasses to impersonate my grandmother. She would even wear makeup on her face to wear liver spots to look old and look like my grandmother."
Investigators say four years ago, Craft checked her mom, Betty Becker, into a hospital under a fake name. When her 90-year-old mom died a short time later, investigators say Craft kept collecting pension checks from Chevron oil.
"Once the police talked to me, they used the word 'fraud' and 'embezzlement,' " said Becker's caregiver Bonnie Vanfossen. "And (Craft) admitted to me that yes, she was cashing her mother's checks."
At one point, Chevron got suspicious that Becker had died. Investigators say Craft entered banks wearing the disguise and carrying an ID card in her dead mother's name.
It worked to keep the accounts open.
A detective stumbled upon the suspected fraud while investigating an unrelated case. The bank froze the accounts, called police, and invited Craft to come back.
Surveillance photos show her wearing the wig and heavy make-up. Detectives arrested her on the spot.
She's now in jail, suspected of identity theft, criminal impersonation and multiple counts of forgery.
The caregiver says Craft couldn't work after she broke her leg and became too sick from diabetes. She says those pension checks were her only lifeline.
"And one month led to two, and two months led to three. And eventually we got four or five years down the line and she probably got so deep in it, she didn't know what else to do."
Source: Komonews
