According to Action News Jax, Evelyn Motel had just come home from a medical scan the day before a stranger walked into her apartment at Discovery Village Deerwood Independent Living claiming he needed to check her electrical outlets. She had taken off her wedding ring for that scan. By the time the man left, it was gone, along with more than a decade of jewelry her husband had given her over their 58-year marriage.
Motel said the man told her he worked in the electrical department and needed to check her outlets, according to Action News Jax. He spent 10 minutes in her bathroom before taking the jewelry, the outlet reported, and before leaving he offered to install an app on her phone that he claimed would mean he would not need to return if anything went wrong.
That offer, police reports cited by the station indicate, was really a cover for stealing her VyStar Credit Union card from the wallet attached to her phone case. Motel did not notice the card was missing for several days, until she visited a branch to get her monthly statements. By then, seven separate $1,000 withdrawals — $7,000 total — had already drained from her account.
A String of Senior Facility Thefts Across Jacksonville
Motel's case was not isolated. The thefts tied to the man she described were reported at a minimum of four senior living facilities and involved more than seven victims, per the same Action News Jax report. Jacksonville police arrested 27-year-old Javaris Johnson in October in connection with the string of thefts, the outlet reported, and he now faces multiple counts of burglary and theft stemming from incidents across the city.
As reported by Action News Jax, police reports estimated the jewelry taken from Motel alone was worth more than $13,000. For Motel, the loss was not just financial. The missing wedding ring and keepsakes represented nearly six decades with her husband, and the fear that the man could come back has stayed with her.
Sleepless Nights Since the Theft
“I haven't slept good since it happened,” Motel told the station. She described the seven withdrawals bluntly: “Seven times, they took out one thousand dollars.” The emotional toll, she said, has been as hard to shake as the financial one.
Motel's case lands amid a string of recent allegations involving theft from Jacksonville's senior residents. In a separate case this year, News4JAX reported that former Centennial Towers employee Annie Marie Grant was charged with exploitation of an aged adult after an Office of Inspector General investigation found she had allegedly misappropriated residents' rent payments. Investigators said Grant endorsed residents' money orders in her own name and deposited them through a mobile banking app, with at least 18 money orders totaling $6,201 misappropriated between May 2021 and April 2022.
A Jacksonville Sheriff's Office financial analysis in that case found at least $10,625.50 in money orders deposited into Grant's accounts over roughly the same period, the station reported. Grant was arrested on June 11, and the Jacksonville Housing Authority said it had already fired her in 2022 for theft, adding that it was seeking full restitution and prison time. The two cases are unrelated, but both point to a vulnerability facing Jacksonville's senior residents, whether from a stranger at the door or someone trusted from within.
