Woman accused of swindling brother out of thousands

Published 3:38 pm Monday, November 30, 2015

A 62 year-old woman has been charged with a felony, accused of stealing more than $33,000 from her brother.

The Rowan County Sheriff’s Office reported that Anne Beck Kimball, 62, of the 400 block of Moon Circle used her brother’s credit card to make purchases after he made her his power-of-attorney in 2011.

The purchases occurred between June 20, 2014, and Aug. 15, 2015. Warrants for Kimball say that she made purchases with a card in her brother’s name “by means of a false pretense which was calculated to deceive and did deceive” and which were “done so as to not benefit” her brother.

The warrants say that between June 20 and Nov. 12, 2014, Kimball withdrew $33,229.07 from her brother’s account at the State Employees Credit Union. The largest withdrawal was for $9,900.

Kimball used the card to purchase “food, gas and/or merchandise” and other items from stores such as Wilco Hess, Shell Oil, Loves Travel Center, Fastop Market, Rushco Market and Zip-n-Go, Walmart, Khol’s, Food Lion, Bojangles, Walgreens and Rite Aid.

According to the warrant, Kimball also used the card to purchase vehicle registrations from the North Carolina DMV on two separate occasions for $167 and $83.25, to purchase food from Ichiban Steakhouse for $105.72, to purchase NASCAR apparel from Nascar.com on two separate occasions for $96.60 and $59.89, to purchase natural mole remover via PayPal for $95, items from Vans.com for $58.85, satellite service from Dish Network for $200, furniture from Kimbrell’s of Salisbury for $194 and $195 and cell service and billing from Sprint for $445.05.

According to the Rowan County Sheriff’s Office, Kimball’s brother, Richard Baxter Beck III, went to the Sheriff’s Office to report Kimball on Aug. 27, 2015. The Sheriff’s Office says that Kimball was living in South Carolina at the time. She was arrested on Nov. 23 and charged with 47 counts of feloniously obtaining property by false pretenses and one count of credit card fraud.

She was placed in the Rowan County Detention Center under a $25,000 secured bond. Rowan County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Capt. John Sifford said Kimball was released later that day.

George William Kimball, 69, Kimball’s husband, was also arrested Monday. According to the warrant, George Kimball withdrew $500 from his brother-in-law’s account on Nov. 6, 2014. He was charged with obtaining property by false pretense and placed in the Rowan County Detention Center under a $2,500 secured bond.

Neither of the Kimballs has any previous charges in North Carolina.