Caregiver's Theft Case Offers Lessons in Protection

For a few hours a day over a period of three months, Paula Watkins left one of the most treasured people in her life -- her ailing husband -- in Tammi Rounds' care.

After battling brain cancer for years, Keith Watkins, a local lawyer, eventually needed round-the-clock care. In July, 2011, Mrs. Watkins used a local home health-care agency to hire Rounds to provide care during the part-time hours she was away at work.

Mrs. Watkins said it wasn't when she received a phone call from the fraud unit at her credit-card company that she first began to suspect anything was wrong but instead when she took her husband's gold chain -- one he wore daily with a cross -- to a jeweler for repairs and learned it was a cheap replica.

The last time Mrs. Watkins saw the woman whom she at one time trusted was when Rounds was handcuffed and led away to prison. It's a vision she hopes others won't have to experience.

The last time Mrs. Watkins saw the woman whom she at one time trusted was when Rounds was handcuffed and led away to prison. It's a vision she hopes others won't have to experience.

"If that chain hadn't broken, I'd never have made the connection," Mrs. Watkins said recently while recounting how she learned most of her jewelry had been stolen and sold in the months before her husband died in November.

"My heart goes out to my husband, to sit there and see this," she said. He was not able to communicate but could comprehend. "When I told him she wasn't coming back, he smiled and nodded."

Rounds was sentenced May 15 to 30 months in prison.

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Caregiver's Theft Case Offers Lessons in Protection