Frances LoGuidice became suspicious when cousin Patricia Coppola moved in with her aunt in her Milton home.
"All of a sudden ... she's going to Italy, she buys a nice car that she never had before,” LoGuidice said. “Things like that. Expensive shoes and things like that. I just put two and two together and just thought this doesn't sound right to me."
Milton police now say Coppola illegally took more than $130,000 from aunt Shirley Dillenbeck, Channel 2 Action News reported.
“I was shocked and upset,” Dillenbeck, who now lives in Oklahoma, told Channel 2 by phone.
“I went to order flowers for my sister for her birthday,” she said, “so I called the bank to find out what my balance was and that's when I found out nothing was in it."
She said she had no idea Coppola had claimed power of attorney over her accounts.
“There were spa charges, trips to Italy,” said Jason Griffin of Milton police, “several charges that had nothing to do with our victim."
Dillenbeck said when she confronted Coppola about the situation, she denied it and put her in a nursing home in Roswell, according to the news station.
Coppola has bonded out of jail, Channel 2 reported, and her attorney declined to comment.
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