Woman Fakes Cancer for Heroin, Scams Grandma to Sell House for $100,000
A 21-year-old woman from Long Island was indicted on Wednesday for pretending to have cancer in order to feed her heroin addiction.
Brittany Ozarowski developed a website and Facebook page in order to receive donations after claiming the she was suffering from multiple types of cancer. She also went to local businesses and neighbors, explaining how the cancer had gone to her brain.
"In September of 2011 I was diagnosed with stage two ovarian cancer as well as stomach cancer. After multiple treatments of both radiation and chemotherapy I had beaten cancer as of December of 2011," Ozarowski stated on her website. "I was cancer free until they had found a tumor on my left hip in February of 2012. That is when I found out I have bone cancer. The cancer has spread to my spine as well as my brain."
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On her Facebook page, she also reached out to one man who offered to help her find a way to tell her story on an organization website dedicated to helping cancer patients.
"My 1st wife passed of cancer in 2001 & I donate to Cancer Care every year," one man wrote on Ozarowski's face Facebook page. The man continued by asking for address to donate to and continued to offer help to Ozarowski.
"Thank you Paul I'm so sorry to hear about your wife," Ozarowski, posing as her "brother" Robert responded in one post. "I also have a 5 yr old daughter that was diagnosed with cancer when she was 2 1/2 yrs old she has been cancer free for a year now she still goes for scans ever 3 months. I'm just trying to give back and help the way people were there for me and my daughter and wife."
Ozarowski also scammed her father and grandmother. Her grandmother sold her house and gave Ozarowski more than $100,000, District Attorney Thomas Spota said.
"This defendant perpetrated a despicable scam. ... There was no cancer, no chemotherapy or radiation. All there was was heroin and more heroin," he noted.
Ozarowski's crime was exposed after a man, suspicious of her request for a donation, asked for the name of her doctor. When she refused to provide one, the man called the district attorney, according to Fox News.
