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Police: Cleaning woman stole wallet from nursing home resident

Daily News of Newburyport - 11/29/2018

Nov. 29--NEWBURYPORT -- A Seabrook woman was ordered not to work in private homes or health care facilities for the next year as part of plea deal that saw her avoid jail time for stealing a wallet from a Newburyport nursing home resident last month.

Arlene Cross, 61, of 80 Folly Mill Road was charged in late October with larceny from a building and larceny under $1,200 by Newburyport police.

In Newburyport District Court on Tuesday, both charges were continued without a finding for a year. During that time, Cross must have no contact with the victim, pay a $90 fine, and not work in a private home or health care setting. If she abides by those conditions and stays out of trouble with the law, the charges will be dropped.

According to a report, the executive director of Country Center for Health & Rehabilitation suspected a member of the cleaning crew stole a wallet from a resident's room. The theft was caught on video and Cross was identified. Newburyport police Officer Derek Paru visited the Low Street center on Oct. 24 and spoke to the director.

"In the video, it shows Ms. Cross going into (the victim's) room approximately 20 minutes later and taking something from the area of the bed and place it inside a newspaper, then bringing it over to her cart with the cleaning supplies," Paru wrote in his report.

When Paru asked Cross about the wallet, she denied ever seeing it in the room. But a little while later, Cross, accompanied by her supervisor, went up to Paru and said she found the wallet in her cleaning cart. She then admitted to stealing it and removing $50 in cash.

After Cross retrieved the money from her car, Paru handcuffed her and charged her with larceny from a building and larceny under $1,200.

Staff writer Dave Rogers can be reached at drogers@newburyportnews.com. Follow him on Twitter@drogers41008.

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