Crime & Safety
Nursing Home Covered Up $700K Theft From Resident: Lawsuit
The 98-year-old victim in the case survived the Japanese internment camps set up by the U.S. government during WWII.
CHICAGO, IL — A Chicago nursing home has come under fire amid a lawsuit alleging five employees stole $700,000 from a 98-year-old resident and management covered it up, according to a Chicago Sun-Times report.
The Cook County public guardian’s office filed a complaint against four entities that own Symphony Residences, five employees and several managers, according to the report. The complaint alleges they stole the money from Grace Watanabe, a 98-year-old survivor of Japanese interment camps from 1942 to 1946, the report says.
In addition to the allegations of stealing her life savings, the complaint says Symphony executive Erika Cruz locked Watanabe up in an office to prevent social workers from moving her to another home, the outlet says. When attorney Dawn Lawkowski-Keller, an attorney working in the county's Public Guardian office, threatened to call the police, Cruz released Watanabe, the Sun-Times reported.
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See the full Chicago Sun-Times report.
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