From staff reports
A Franklin Park woman has been charged by Palos Heights police with assuming the identities of nursing home residents and stealing more than $25,000 from those residents.
Anna Zur, 39, was charged last week with multiple felonies related to wire fraud and continuing a financial crimes enterprise after an extensive criminal investigation that lasted a year, police said.
Zur was arrested on Aug. 26 in Franklin Park on a Palos Heights warrant. Bail was set at $50,000 last week during a bond hearing at the Bridgeview Courthouse. She is in Cook County Jail, awaiting her next court date on Sept. 24.
Palos Heights police initially took a report from a victim who observed fraudulent charges on her and her elderly mother’s checking account that was used to pay for the mother’s stay at the Villa at Palos Heights, a nursing and rehab center at 12550 S. Ridgeland Ave.
After further investigation and assistance by Villa Healthcare’s corporate office, police learned that a former employee had access to numerous patients’ sensitive personal and financial information and documents.
The investigation showed that the employee, later identified as Zur, sent copies of these documents to her personal email and subsequently used this information to make purchases and make payments on her own debts.
In total, 34 people were shown to have been victim of these identity thefts with total losses over $25,000, according to police.
According to the Cook County Sheriff’s Office website, Zur also is due at a Sept. 24 hearing in Rolling Meadows on other charges, for which she is being held on $75,000 bail.