Drug addictions can have devastating effects on not only the user, but all those involved. In some cases, it can go even further and include those the addict doesn't even know. Brittany Ozarowski, a 21-year old heroin addict from Long Island, NY, took that notion to the extreme by oncocting an elaborate hoax in which she claimed to have cancer in order to receive donations to support her habit, according to the New York Daily News.
Because the drugs debilitated her figure, she was easily able to pass for a cancer patient.
"She looked sick, oh yeah. But she was a drug addict, obviously. She looked like she was going to die," Ozarowski's neighbor, Denise Bambola, who contributed $10,000, told CBS New York.
Posting a picture of herself sitting in a wheel chair weighing only 80 pounds solidified the con's ruse.
Ozarowski was even able to fool her own family by creating a fake website to solicit donations in which she stated, among other lies: "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."
Her grandmother sold her house and her father exhausted his retirement account. Of course, the thousands of dollars she defrauded never went to radiation and other cancer treatments as she claimed, but instead supported her habit.
Earlier this week, Ozarowski pleaded guilty to a 24-count indictment charge and is expected to serve two years in rehab and a third year in community service. She'll have repay over $10,000.
Her attorney George Duncans claimed Ozarwoski has been clean since her April arrest. Both lawyer and client acknowledged the justice of the court's sentence.
"She's terribly remorseful. She's horrified and embarrassed," Duncans said, and believes that it is "an appropriate sentence given the nature of her offenses, which were morally reprehensible."
