DORAL, Fla. — A 59-year-old woman with a criminal record in Broward and Miami-Dade counties was working as a caretaker when she exploited an 86-year-old woman, according to the Doral Police Department.
Doral Chief Edwin Lopez said surveillance videos show Monica Orta shopping with the victim’s credit cards at stores such as Nordstrom and Macy’s in Miami-Dade County, police said.
On Tuesday, police officers arrested Orta, who was born in Lima, Peru, and lived in Hialeah, as her arrest record for thefts going back as far as 2004 got longer year after year.
A Doral police officer met with Orta’s most recent victim on Aug. 22 at the Goldvue Estates gated community after the stores reported suspicious activity, and Orta vanished with two of her rings valued at $2,500, according to the arrest report.
Orta had been caring for the victim since July after hiring her through an agency that told the victim Orta was not going back because “she did not like the way she was being treated,” according to the police officer’s arrest report.
Police officers stopped Orta, who was in a Chevrolet Equinox near her home in Hialeah, and police officers found she had the victim’s credit cards, receipts, and a gift card linking her to the crimes, according to the arrest report.
During questioning, Orta said she had quit and accused the victim of “rudeness and disrespect” and lying. The police department did not name the agency that hired Orta despite her long record.
In Miami-Dade, Orta’s arrest record includes the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office in 2016, 2012, 2009, and 2004; Aventura PD in 2020, 2012, and 2009; Hialeah PD in 2021, 2018, and 2008; and Doral PD in 2006.
In Broward, Pembroke Pines police officers arrested her for theft in 2023 and 2014. Plantation police officers arrested her in 2020, and Broward Sheriff’s Office deputies arrested her in 2012.
Court records show Miami-Dade prosecutors filed a new case against Orta on Wednesday for seven felonies and two misdemeanors.
Orta faced charges of exploiting an elderly disabled victim, organized scheme to defraud, two counts of identification fraud, three counts of credit card fraud of more than $100, and two counts of credit card fraud of less than $100.
Miami-Dade County Circuit Judge Michelle Delancy was set to preside over the case.
Detectives asked anyone with information about this or other cases to call Miami-Dade County Crime Stoppers at 305-471-8477 to remain anonymous.
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