70-Year-Old Man Accused of Scamming Residents at Nursing Home
Oakland police have been searching for a man suspected of scamming over $20,000 from two elderly residents. 70-year-old Carl Talton is suspected of elder abuse, grand theft, and attempted elder abuse after he created a scheme to steal money from residents. The scheme involves telling victims that they will be given a small piece of an inheritance that will be collected if a donation is made to a church or charity.
The schemer makes this promise to the victims and but disappears just after the victim hands them the donation. Talton is believed to have been involved in this scheme since last year, according to the Mercury News report.
Many reports arise about elderly people being scammed out of thousands of dollars of money. However, a majority of these reports involve perpetrators that are much younger than their victims. Many people do not realize that a nursing home or elder care facility is an easy target for other residents to steal money. Victims are within easy access for other residents of the facility to steal from them if the perpetrators are physically stronger or more capable than their victims. One other factor that plays into a person’s ability to scam the elderly is the person’s age.
Elderly people were raised during a time when trust and good faith were commonplace. Nobody wants to believe that there are people who would scam somebody else out of large sums of money without a second though, but the sad fact is scammers are becoming more and more common. Elderly people should not have to suffer any sort of loss and they deserve to be cared for and assisted in any way possible.
