74-year-old Ann Mayers is being charged in the armed robbery of a credit union in Fairfield Township, Ohio, last week.
Family members say that she had been a victim of an online scam which may have led her to attempt to fix her financial issues.
Mayers has been charged with aggravated robbery with a firearm and tampering with evidence in the occurrence that happened on Friday.
On Wednesday, she was still jailed on a $100,000 bond until she appears in court again.
Mayers was taken into custody at her residence in Hamilton, a little after the robbery. A firearm was located in her vehicle which authorities say she used in the incident.
Detectives later found out that Mayers possibly could have been a victim of a scam and are reviewing those claims. Her family members told investigators that she had been sending money to an unidentified person.
“In that aspect, some may see her as a ‘victim.’ Unfortunately, Ann chose to victimize several other people in the bank by robbing it with a firearm as a remedy for her situation,” one officer noted.
If family members’ accounts are true, then the officer stated that Mayer’s situation is “very sad and unfortunate.” He added that she had talked with relatives about robbing banks days prior to the holdup; however, they hadn’t really believed her.
In the past 10 or 15 years, scams have been occurring more often. Some of them are identified as grandparent scams, where callers claim to be anyone from a victim’s grandchild to a person of authority. They then tell the victim something bad happened and that a younger family member needs funds.
