A senior living nurse with theft in her past stole $3,200 from a resident, cops say
Fraud and senior citizen theft charges amounting to $3,200 fraud could cost a Winter Haven licensed practical nurse her license and her freedom.
None of 43-year-old Cheri Cobbett’s previous criminal justice episodes cost her either, although both led to a conviction after stealing in some form. But none involved a resident at a senior living facility.
That’s likely why, earlier this month, the Florida Department of Health put an emergency restriction on Cobbett’s license that prohibits her from working in any position that would give her access to a patient’s financial information or forms of payment.
Polk County prosecutors are going for a restriction to prison on charges of theft from a senior citizen from $300 to $10,000; uttering a forged instrument; and eight counts of fraudulent use of an ID of a victim 60 years of age or older. Cobbett posted $28,000 bond in March.
Going shopping?
According to the emergency restriction order (ERO), Cobbett was a nurse at Grace Healthcare of Lake Wales when she went on a shopping spree Feb. 1 and 2. She used a resident’s SunTrust debit card to drop $203 at Dillard’s; $87 at JCPenney; $208, including $100 cash back at the register, at a Walmart in Bartow; and $211, $192 and $100 cash back at a Walmart in Winter Haven.
Cobbett, the ERO claims, also got Pop-A-Lock locksmith to accept one of the resident’s SunTrust checks by saying the check was from her mother because Cobbett had just had her checks, debit cards and cash stolen.
On Feb. 14, the resident noticed 28 fraudulent transactions on her SunTrust bank statement totaling $3,200. Some of the charges were in Lake Wales and some were in Winter Haven. Two of the Winter Haven charges were made at a Mid Florida Credit Union ATM.
A week later, police were told the resident was missing four SunTrust checks, one of which had been used for $267.50 at Pop-A-Lock locksmith.
When Lake Wales police took photos from Mid Florida’s ATM surveillance camera back to Grace Healthcare on Feb. 20, three employees identified the woman as Cobbett. When she arrived at work, the arrest report said, Cobbett told police she didn’t know anything about any of this.
But, the arrest report said, she had the resident’s Capital One Platinum credit card in a pocket and, in her wallet, three of the missing checks. One was for $400, made out to Cheri Cobbett with her endorsing signature on the back.
Cobbett claimed she found the credit card in the parking lot and the resident gave her the checks.
Her History
In March, while Cobbett sat in Polk County Jail before bonding out, she was put on probation for charges from a June 2019 incident.
Cobbett was found guilty of failing to redeliver property worth more than $300. Great Rooms said she rented a 43-inch LG television worth $1,350.96 last June, made a $14.30 down payment on it and didn’t make another payment. Cobbett was sentenced to $498.06 restitution and two years’ probation.
In 2014, Cobbett used self-checkout at Walmart to pay for some things and not pay for some other things, the latter worth about $177. She got probation after a guilty plea to petit theft.
She went into a pretrial diversion program from bounced check charges in 2006.
This story was originally published May 25, 2020 at 11:26 AM with the headline "A senior living nurse with theft in her past stole $3,200 from a resident, cops say."
