A Pennsylvania woman has been arrested for collecting more than $100,000 in welfare benefits for three children that don’t exist, authorities said.
Sabrina Strothers, 23, of Pittsburgh, is charged with two counts each of forgery and making false statements in a welfare investigation and one count of theft by deception, Trib Live reported.
Detectives from the Allegheny County Court District Attorney’s Office said Strothers was pregnant with triplets in 2008, but they were never born.
Strothers told officials that three children — Thomas, Tomalyia, and Tyreik Wilson — were born on Nov. 20, 2008. She collected benefits for them until March, after her cousin reported her to authorities in January, WTAE reports.
Strothers received $89,453 in medical assistance funds, $37,269 in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, and $2,073 in Temporary Assistance for Needy Families grants — totaling $128,795 of illegal benefits from Pennsylvania’s Department of Human Services, the New York Daily News reports.
Strothers told investigators that her children lived with their father in Atlanta, Georgia and she sent her benefit card to their father so he could provide for them. She did not provide an address or a telephone number for the father.
Investigators say that the social security numbers she claimed for her children belonged to people born in 1887, 1945, and 1960.
Strothers is scheduled for a preliminary hearing in Allegheny County Court on Dec. 22.
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