Tulsa County Family Accused Of Stealing $140K From Grandmother

Tulsa County Deputies arrest a woman, her husband, and their son accused of stealing more than $140,000 from a relative, who recently had a stroke.

Investigators say Melanie Crossman withdrew tens of thousands of dollars in cash every month from her mother's account, but told investigators the money was for her mother's care. The victim has memory loss from her stroke last May. Investigators say, Crossman, Johnny Thompson, and Alex Thompson used the stolen money to go on vacations, go out to eat, buy $150 shoes and other stuff and pay all their bills.

"When I went through the August bank statement alone, the victim had five deposits, made to her account, while there were 260-something withdrawals,” said Deputy Richie Gonzales with the Tulsa County Sheriff's Office.

Deputy Gonzales says his investigation started when he got a tip from Adult Protection Services, who had gotten a tip from an Owasso bank. They said a woman was having huge amounts of cash withdrawn from her account every month. Investigators say the victim's daughter, Melanie Crossman, had access to the account to help her mother but was instead sending dozens of Cash App payments to her son Alex every month and paying all of their bills. Investigators say in August alone, Crossman took more than $34,000, leaving the victim with just a couple hundred dollars in her account.

"This isn't something that is made up, the documents and the bank statements tell the story. You even had the victim paying utilities for three separate households. I'm talking cable, water, and electricity,” said Gonzales.

He says Crossman told them she had been taking money out like this for eight years, but the bank told investigators this only started after the victim's stroke. Gonzales says it's his job to advocate for the victims who can't advocate for themselves.

"The family that is supposed to be caring for their loved one was actually taking some extensive trips, vacations, on their family members' funds,” said Gonzales.

Deputy Gonzales says the quick work by the Tulsa County District Attorney’s office and Adult Protective Services, helped put a stop to this victim being victimized even further.