A Tavares woman has been arrested on a warrant charging her with the theft of a blind woman’s credit card to buy gift cards from Walgreens.
Eileen Chandler, 59, was taken into custody Thursday by the Tavares Police Department for fraud and theft charges incurred on a Lake County warrant for the events from late last year, according to an arrest report from the Lake County Sheriff’s Office.
On the afternoon of Dec. 16, an officer with TPD responded to an undisclosed residence regarding a fraud complaint, according to an affidavit of probable cause out of Lake County.
Upon the officer’s arrival, the complainant informed him that her friend was a victim of fraud. She explained that she assists her friend, who is blind, in a caregiver capacity to include taking her to appointments, shopping and helping with her bills. She had taken her friend to get a haircut that day, but when she tried to pay for her service, her card was denied, the affidavit said.
The officer next interviewed the victim and the complainant collectively where she advised that she had a credit card and believed someone used it without her permission. When the pair learned that the card declined, they contacted her bank to determine why. The staff provided a long list of charges that were not completed by the victim, the affidavit said.
This list included three Walgreens charges at 680 E. Burleigh Boulevard. With that knowledge, the victim and the complainant went to the store and obtained receipts from the three purchases. They also asked to get surveillance footage from the store, but the store manager informed them that they needed law enforcement with them, the affidavit said.
The first charge was for a $100 Vanilla Visa Gift Card with a total cost of $105.95 from Oct. 27, 2023. The second was for a $200 Vanilla Visa Gift Card with a total cost of $205.95 from Oct. 31, 2023, and the third was for another $200 gift card with a total cost of $205.95. For two of these purchases, the payment showed a card was used, meaning it had to be in someone’s possession and manually inserted into a machine, the affidavit said.
The officer immediately called Walgreens and spoke with an employee who informed him that their surveillance footage only holds for 30 days before being replaced with new footage. That said, the officer could not get any suspect identification from the three receipts, the affidavit said.
Additionally, the complainant told the officer that she kept records of all the victim’s bank statements but had not gotten the last two months’ worth of bank statements. They explained that the victim had a credit limit of $7,500 and believed most of it had been used with fraudulent purchases. They did not have an itemized list of fraudulent purchases but would contact the officer later to provide that information. The bank had also refunded some of the charges, although they were unsure which purchases or how much, the affidavit said.
The victim stated she was typically the only one who had physical possession of her card, but others had access to it before. The officer asked if the complainant had access to the card to which she stated she did not. She explained that the victim was the only one who would have possession of the card, the affidavit said.
On Jan. 9, the officer learned that some of the victim’s church friends had fallen under suspicion as possible suspects. It was believed one of them came into the victim’s home to help her and taken the card. Two women, one of which was Chandler, attended the same church and would come help the victim at her home. The victim would leave her purse out in the open, so one of them could have easily gained access to her bank card, the affidavit said.
Upon further investigation, the officer found that Chandler was already a suspect in several other fraud cases with the Lake Frances Estates community, located at 1150 Skyline Drive, the affidavit said.
The investigation continued, and it was later learned that Walgreens still had surveillance footage from a purchase on Nov. 4, 2023. So, the officer returned to the store on Jan. 23 to retrieve it. Still shots of the suspect were sent to the complainant, and she identified the woman as Chandler, the affidavit said.
On Feb. 5, two officers went to Chandler’s residence, located at 1460 Skyline Drive, to interview her. She allowed them into her home and agreed to answer questions. When asked about her relationship with the victim, she stated that she was familiar with her son-in-law who she went to church with, the affidavit said.
Chandler further advised that the victim’s son-in-law requested that she help the victim around Thanksgiving time by going to her residence to help clean and grocery shop. The officers asked if she had access to the victim’s bank cards to which she initially stated she did not. When the officer explained that he had surveillance footage to the contrary, she instead stated that the victim told her to purchase groceries and gift cards a couple of times, the affidavit said.
The officer asked Chandler to explain more about the gift cards, and she said the victim told her to purchase $200 for her nine great-grandchildren. The officer then informed her that he spoke with the victim who stated that she did not give anyone permission to use her bank card and furthermore did not receive any gift cards that would have been bought with her card, the affidavit said.
Chandler again stated that the victim did tell her to get gift cards and that she put them near the victim’s medicine within her residence. She also stated that the victim wrote cards to each of her great-grandchildren and sent the gift cards their way. She later added that the victim’s son-in-law advised her to make some purchases for the victim and knew of them, the affidavit said.
Chandler’s husband was also present during the conversation. He spoke up at one point stating that he told Chandler not to get involved because the victim has a reputation of claiming that people steal items from her home, the affidavit said.
The officer spoke with the victim again on Feb. 7 during which she advised that she did not receive any of the gift cards purchased by Chandler nor did she have knowledge of them being bought. She also stated that her son-in-law initially agreed to speak with law enforcement but became upset about the case, left the residence and no longer wanted to do so, the affidavit said.
Chandler was ultimately arrested Thursday evening by TPD. The New York native was charged with fraudulent use of a credit card, illegal possession of personal identification information and petit theft. She was transported to the Lake County Jail and released after posting $6,500 bond.
