Woman says she has cancer and was robbed of rent money. Ohio cops say theft was staged
An Ohio woman says she was robbed last week after she withdrew money from an ATM, police say.
Kimberly Armstrong later told outlets she was suffering from stage 4 cancer and was withdrawing money to pay her rent.
But Boardman police say Armstrong falsely reported the robbery. Their investigation showed Armstrong had not been robbed at all, police said in a news release.
According to the release, the woman has now been charged with making false alarms and obstructing official business after police say she faked the report of an armed robbery.
After calling the police Dec. 2, Armstrong said she was unharmed and provided officers with a written statement of the alleged robbery, the release said.
She gave an interview to WKBN the same day while lying in bed.
“It was terrible, it was one of the worst things that could have happened,” Armstrong, 50, told the news outlet through tears.
In the interview, Armstrong said she had battled cancer for eight years and had another chemo treatment the next day.
“I was really scared, I wasn’t sure if he had a weapon or anything like that,” she said.
But officers came to the conclusion she staged the robbery after unearthing surveillance footage.
“Area surveillance footage showed that Armstrong did not have interaction with anyone and took steps to make it appear that she had withdrawn money from an ATM and then was robbed while walking outside,” Boardman police said in the release.
She turned herself in Dec. 3. A pretrial hearing has been scheduled for Dec. 28, the court docket showed.
Police said the investigation is ongoing because Armstrong may have used the incident “to solicit donations,” the release said.
This story was originally published December 7, 2021 at 3:12 PM with the headline "Woman says she has cancer and was robbed of rent money. Ohio cops say theft was staged."
