Care-home jewelry thief sentenced to year in jail

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This article was published 11/02/2020 (2254 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

When Anna Mercado pried wedding rings from the fingers of the ailing and vulnerable women in her care, and then sold them, she was robbing generations of family members of a tangible tie to their past, a judge said Tuesday.

“These rings were family heirlooms that carried significant emotional and sentimental value and were intended to be passed from the women who had worn them to their daughters and granddaughters,” provincial court Judge Larry Allen said before sentencing the former personal care home worker to one year in jail.

“This crime is not only the theft of a material object — it is the disregard of the huge significance played by that object in the ongoing well-being of the victim and victims in following generations.”

Mercado pleaded guilty last year to stealing wedding rings and other jewelry from eight female residents at the Kildonan Long Term Care Home between February and March 2019.

Mercado bowed her head and stared somberly at the floor Tuesday, as Allen detailed her crimes.

The victims, who ranged in age from 80s to more than 100, all suffered from dementia and/or Alzheimer’s disease. At least two of the women have since died.

Mercado used lotion to remove tight-fitting rings, then sold them to a gold buyer, where they were melted down. For all but one of the rings, she received no more than $60.

“Ms. Mercado took advantage of her trusted position to steal from individuals who were amongst, if not the most vulnerable in our society,” Allen said. “This was a gross breach of trust motivated by Ms. Mercado’s greed.”

Mercado offered various explanations to police and to the writer of a pre-sentence report, claiming at one time she needed money for rent and furniture after separating from her husband; at another saying she used the money for cab fare after a theft aboard a bus left her afraid to use transit.

“I find little… that indicates anything substantially out of the ordinary in her circumstances to reduce her moral culpability,” Allen said. “It seems to me Ms. Mercado’s financial circumstances were similar to many in our society.”

Carla Sly’s mother, Anne Kytaychuk, passed away April 8, 2019, just three days after family members learned her rings had been stolen.

“It was never about the money,” Sly said outside court Tuesday. “These (rings) were irreplaceable. It’s about the emotions, it’s about what she took from the whole family.

“For everyone here, there’s a story behind the family and the trauma that resulted.”

Mercado offered a tearful apology to her victim’s family members at a sentencing hearing last month. Sly said Tuesday she believed Mercado was genuinely remorseful.

“It’s emotional to see someone ruin their own life for something that she really didn’t need to do,” Sly said. “I hope she can recover and I hope she learns and realizes that you can’t gain from other people’s pain.”

A spokesperson for care home operator Revera Inc. said the Kildonan facility introduced new security measures following Mercado’s arrest, including photographing and cataloguing each resident’s valuables.

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca