GREENFIELD – A woman entered a Greenfield assisted living facility late last month and tricked residents into giving her money, telling them she’d use the cash to buy groceries that she never returned with, according to court documents.
Investigators used surveillance footage from inside a local assisted living facility to identify Connie Coffman, 60, as the stranger residents said came into their rooms asking for money, according to court documents.
Locally, Coffman faces charges of burglary and exploitation, records show. A warrant is pending for her arrest, records show.
The same woman is under investigation for similar actions in as many as five Indiana counties, police said.
Officials at Crown Pointe Assisted Living facility, who declined to comment for this story, contacted police on July 24 after two residents reported to staff members that a woman — someone they’d never met before, the residents said — came into their rooms uninvited and asked for money, records state.
The woman told the two victims she was going to the Greenfield Marsh to shop on residents’ behalf. The location was closing and had discount prices on fruit and snack items, the woman told victims, according to court documents.
But Marsh in Greenfield had shuttered its doors two months prior, records show.
Crown Pointe’s nurses called police immediately to report the allegations. Investigators visited the facility and took copies of security camera footage from inside, court documents state.
The video shows a woman, who matched the victims’ description of the suspect, walking the halls of the nursing home, peeking around corners and pulling on doors to see if they were unlocked, police said.
The video showed the woman entering the alleged victims’ rooms, court documents state.
The victims said the stranger took about $60, collectively, from them, records show.
Police circulated the image of the suspect among other area police agencies, according to court documents.
They determined the woman, later identified as Coffman, was under investigation for similar actions in five other central Indiana counties, court documents state.
Prosecutors in Marion and Hamilton counties filed criminal cases against Coffman this week involving theft, fraud and burglary, court records show.
In Hancock County, Coffman faces one Level 4 felony count of burglary and one Level 6 felony count of exploitation of an endangered adult, records show.
Hancock County prosecutors have also accused Coffman of being a habitual criminal, meaning if she is found guilty of burglary and exploitation, she could receive a tougher sentence based on her criminal history.
At press time, Coffman had not yet been arrested.