Surveillance footage showed another woman which police identified as Maricela Bracamontes walk up and grab the victim’s purse, KTLA 5 reports. Police weren’t able to recover the pilfered money.
Bracamontes, of Bell Gardens, was charged with alleged felony elder abuse, The San Gabriel Valley Tribune reports.
“She was arrested for elder abuse because she targeted a senior,” Lt. Tina Montoya of the Monterey Park Police Department told the Tribune.
The woman, who is 86, briefly left her purse unattended, and when she returned, her purse was gone.
Bracamontes took the purse, but later discarded it, keeping the victim’s wallet which contained credit cards and the bingo prize money, Montoya said, The Pasadena Star-News reports. She went back to the senior center Thursday and left the victim’s wallet and credit cards at a pay phone before heading to the police station.
Booking records say that Bracamontes is being held at the Century Regional Detention Facility on $50,000 bail. She will be arraigned Monday at the Alhambra Superior Court, The Pasadena Star-News reports.
