A former aide at a Minnesota nursing home has admitted to stealing the wedding ring off of a resident’s finger and pawning it over her lunch break.
Erin Russell, 24, admitted that she took the ring off of a resident at St. Brigid’s at Hi-Park in Red Wing, MN, in July. She then took the $4,000 ring to a nearby pawn shop and pawned it for $200 during her lunch break from the facility.
The 93-year-old resident’s niece noticed the ring was missing, and alerted authorities. Russell was later caught on the store’s video surveillance shop pawning the ring while wearing her scrubs and facility name tag, but denied taking the ring, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported.
Russell was fired from the facility, arrested and charged with felony theft. St. Brigid’s did not return a call requesting comment by press time Friday.
Authorities expect Russell to plead guilty during a settlement conference next week. Russell told the Star Tribune she will try to have her charges dropped from a felony to a misdemeanor or gross misdemeanor.
The resident whose ring was stolen was in hospice care at the time of the theft, and died 17 days later. Authorities recovered the ring from the pawn shop and returned it to the woman’s niece, according to the Star Tribune.
