A night-shift nursing aide at a North Olmsted assisted living facility has been charged after investigators say she stole $2,500 from a blind 86-year-old resident using a string of unauthorized ATM withdrawals. Daisy Torres, 37, was fired from her position on August 27 and now faces felony charges tied to the alleged scheme, which authorities say unraveled only after the victim's sister noticed the suspicious activity while reviewing bank statements.
According to WKRC, the victim, who is blind and lived at The Inn at Joshua Tree in North Olmsted, had five unauthorized withdrawals totaling $2,500 pulled from her account. The victim's sister told investigators she did not know who was making the ATM withdrawals, and once she raised concerns, a family member formally reported the alleged theft to law enforcement. That report set off an investigation that pulled in both the bank and the care facility.
Westlake Police Captain Jerry Vogel confirmed that investigators identified Torres using surveillance footage from a Citizens Bank branch, where the withdrawals were made, as reported by WENG Radio. Citizens Bank and The Inn at Joshua Tree both helped identify Torres as the suspect, and law enforcement obtained video showing her taking cash from the victim's account, per the WKRC report. Torres worked as a night-shift aide at the facility before her termination.
Two Felony Charges Under Ohio Law
Torres was charged with felony theft and felony misuse of a credit card, according to the WKRC report. Under Ohio Revised Code Section 2913.02, theft of property valued between $1,000 and $7,500 from a victim 65 or older is elevated to a fourth-degree felony, carrying a potential 6 to 18 months in prison and fines up to $5,000, according to Ohio law. Separately, Ohio Revised Code Section 2913.71 makes unauthorized use of a credit or debit card an automatic fifth-degree felony regardless of the amount stolen, a distinct statute from general theft thresholds.
The Inn at Joshua Tree is a 39-apartment licensed assisted living facility in North Olmsted that runs 24-hour residential care, with overnight shifts scheduled from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m., according to Olera.care. That overnight schedule placed Torres in a position of routine, largely unsupervised access to residents like the alleged victim. The ATM withdrawals themselves took place miles away, at a Citizens Bank branch in neighboring Westlake.
How Two Suburbs Share One Courtroom
The dual-city geography of this case is not unusual for the region. North Olmsted, where the facility sits, and Westlake, where the fraudulent withdrawals occurred, both fall under the territorial jurisdiction of Rocky River Municipal Court alongside Bay Village, Fairview Park, and Rocky River, under Ohio Revised Code Section 1901.02. That shared judicial framework, detailed in earlier Hoodline reporting, allows police departments across the five western Cuyahoga County suburbs to coordinate investigations and court processing without jurisdictional friction, which appears to have smoothed the handoff between Westlake police and North Olmsted authorities in this case.
A Pattern State Officials Say Is Common
Ohio Attorney General data shows that roughly 90 percent of elder abuse and financial exploitation cases are committed by family members or trusted individuals, including paid caregivers and residential facility staff. That pattern echoes a case Hoodline covered in February, when a former business office manager at a Loveland, Ohio nursing home was indicted on 56 felony counts for allegedly stealing roughly $300,000 from more than 50 resident trust accounts.
National research suggests cases like this one are rarely caught. The National Association of Adult Protective Services Administrators estimates that only 1 in 24 to 1 in 44 instances of elder financial exploitation is ever reported to law enforcement or social service agencies, often because cognitive impairment or physical vulnerability leaves victims unable or hesitant to flag missing funds themselves. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has found that financial institutions filed suspicious activity reports involving more than $3.4 billion in suspected elder financial exploitation in 2020 alone, with victims losing an average of $34,200 when theft occurred.
In this case, it was the victim's sister who caught the fraud, cross-checking bank statements and noticing withdrawals neither she nor her sibling could explain. Ohio residents who suspect elder financial abuse can report concerns through the Ohio Attorney General's Elder Justice Unit or the state's Long-Term Care Ombudsman program, both of which offer dedicated hotlines for families and victims navigating suspected exploitation.
