Police say caretaker stole, used credit card

LANSDALE — A Perkasie woman employed as a caretaker for an elderly Lansdale man living at the Elm Terrace Gardens retirement community has been arrested for allegedly stealing and using the man’s credit card multiple times during a four-day span last month.

Alesha Inez Olinick, 33, of the 700 block of Blooming Glen Drive, was taken into custody Monday and arraigned before District Judge Harold Borek of Lansdale on 12 criminal counts — eight counts of felony identity theft, two counts of misdemeanor access device fraud and one count each of misdemeanor theft and misdemeanor receiving stolen property.

Lansdale police said that on Feb. 4, the son of an elderly couple living at Elm Terrace Gardens — who has power of attorney over his parents’ affairs — reported that while visiting them two days earlier, he discovered eight unauthorized transactions made with his father’s credit card, for a total of $296.97, between Jan. 11 and Jan. 14 at several locations in Montgomery, Bucks and Chester counties.

After noticing the fraudulent charges, police said, the man checked his father’s wallet and discovered his credit card was missing.

Detectives then obtained video surveillance footage from an unspecified location that showed Olinick — who was employed by an outside agency as a caretaker for the couple — using the stolen credit card to make illicit purchases, according to police.

At Monday morning’s preliminary arraignment, Borek set bail at 10 percent of $10,000 cash, and Olinick was committed to Montgomery County Correctional Facility after failing to post bond.

She’s due back in Borek’s courtroom on March 4 for a preliminary hearing.