An elderly Houston woman was left with only $1.50 after a Frost Bank teller stole nearly $140,000 out of her personal bank account, court documents allege.
30-year-old Cecilia Hope Brown was charged with aggregate theft of an elderly person, a second-degree felony. A warrant was issued for her arrest and she is not currently in custody, according to a Dec. 15 press release from Houston Crime Stoppers.
Court documents allege that Brown stole $140,000 from the then 86-year-old customer in a series of six transactions from her IRA account after building a personal rapport with the elderly woman, who treated her “like a daughter.”
“The complainant reported she did not make those withdrawals and believes her IRA account was fraudulently accessed,” according to court documents.
The woman said Brown was the only person with access to her bank account, but she never gave Brown permission to withdraw or keep any money from her bank account. From February until July, Brown withdrew around $23,000 six times from her bank account.
“The complainant concluded her statement by stating the only other person that was involved with handling business on her IRA account was a woman named Cecilia who is an employee at Frost Bank,” court documents allege.
A supervisor from the bank at 5925 Kirby Dr., in a statement to investigators said she confronted Brown after the elderly woman reported thousands of dollars missing from her bank account.
She said she confronted Brown after checking surveillance footage that showed Brown making withdrawals without the woman present, going against the bank’s “standard operations or normal procedures.” Brown said she thought she was doing “a good thing” for the customer.
The supervisor said she also witnessed on video Brown taking cash from the bank’s vault storing it underneath a teller counter and eventually leaving the bank with boxes. Brown told the supervisor that the elderly woman would sometimes ask her to bring cash out to her car, but the supervisor said she had never been made aware of that, court documents allege.
Crime stoppers may pay $5,000 for information leading to the location and arrest of Brown. Any information can be reported through the organization’s tip line at 713-222-8477.
Copyright 2023 Houston Public Media News 88.7. To see more, visit Houston Public Media News 88.7.