Disabled Senior's Caregiver Charged With Stealing Nearly $15,000

SKOKIE, IL — The caretaker of a wheelchair-bound Morton Grove resident is accused of embezzling nearly $15,000 after being entrusted to handle the elderly woman's finances.

Aracely Serrano, 53, of the 10000 block of Linda Lane, Des Plaines, was charged with financial exploitation of an elderly person and felony theft after family members conducted an audit of the 83-year-old resident's accounts, according to police and prosecutors.

The Morton Grove woman's family put Serrano in charge of depositing social security checks and paying her expenses in June 2020 after a daughter of the elderly resident, who had been been responsible for her finances, was diagnosed with cancer and no longer able to assist, prosecutors said.

In April 2021, the daughter had recovered from cancer enough to resume the financial responsibilities and carried out an audit of her mother's accounts, according to Assistant State's Attorney Jenna Reinhardt.

"When confronted by the victim's family, [Serrano] admitted to making these unauthorized withdrawals and using the money to help a friend," Reinhardt said Tuesday at Serrano's initial court appearance in Skokie.

"She alleged that her friend had been kidnaped in Mexico and that she sent money through Western Union," the prosecutor told the judge. "However, during the investigative process, Western Union indicated that [Serrano] had not sent any money through Western Union."

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Jeff Kent, Serrano's defense attorney, said his client was responsible for taking care of three grandchildren and had another on the way.

Kent said Serrano had raised three children to adulthood as a single mother and that he had received numerous calls of support from her family in this case. She has been a U.S. citizen for more than three decades and is not a flight risk, her attorney said.

The incident was initially reported by the elderly resident's family in April 2021, and Serrano turned herself in Monday to the Morton Grove Police Department after detectives received bank records through subpoenas and contacted her, police said.

Serrano, who has no criminal background, was ordered held until she can post the $1,000 cash portion of her bail, which her attorney said her family expected to do shortly after Tuesday's hearing. She is due back in court March 15 for a preliminary hearing.