Gabriella Mackin visits her daughter's grave every week.
Forest Park Lawndale Cemetery is a peaceful space and the last thing she expected was to become a crime victim. But last week, while watering flowers she had planted on Alessandra's final resting place, someone stole her handbag out of her car and her car keys, leaving her stranded. Minutes later, surveillance video showed Latoya White trying to use the card to buy $500 worth of gift cards at a nearby Walgreens.
She wasn't able to as Mackin quickly used her phone to block her bank and credit cards. Mackin says White either sold or gave her ID and credit card to another woman, and that person was caught after she tried to use Mackin's driver's license to cash a check for $3800 at a bank in Spring.
She says that the woman was arrested with her ID and credit card. Another person in her car was busted for drugs. Police then found the driver licenses of several people in that car, but not Alessandra's.
Mackin had kept that in her wallet. She wants it returned.
"If they would just put it in an envelope and mail it back to me... I would just ask that," Mackin said. "I won't ask anything else. Just that ID. She was 24 and she died of cancer. Her driver's license was one of the few things she carried around with her and I want that back."
Regarding where the crime happened, Mackin says, "To prey on grieving people who are already destroyed by the death of their loved one is just the lowest form...it's just beating people when they're already down."
White is charged with three cases in Houston. Police believe she broke into cars of people parked at Memorial Oaks Cemetery and Bill Archer Dog Park. She is suspected in eight other similar crimes and was already out on bond when she allegedly committed this crime, and had gotten out of the Harris County jail last month.
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