Health care worker charged with stealing medication from elderly woman with dementia

RACINE ⸺ The Racine County District Attorney’s office has charged a home health care worker with possession and theft after she took Vicodin from a patient’s home.

Kayla L. Jandl, 27, of Racine, faces charges of: 

• Possession of narcotic drugs, a felony;
• Possession of a controlled substance, a misdemeanor;
• Possess/illegally obtained prescription, a misdemeanor;
• And attempt misdemeanor theft. 

The victim of Jandl’s alleged crimes is a 96-year-old woman with dementia who was under Jandl’s care.

According to online court records, on Monday, the court ordered a $2,000 cash bond for Jandl during her initial appearance. Jandl will next appear in court for a preliminary hearing on Jan. 13. 

Criminal complaint

On Christmas Eve, a Racine Police Department officer responded to the 1900 block of Deane Boulevard concerning a theft of narcotics, according to the criminal complaint.

While responding, he spoke to the resident’s daughter over the phone who told him that she believed Jandl, her mother’s home health care worker, was stealing her mother’s Vicodin.  

He met the daughter at a residence up the street from the original location on Deane Boulevard. While there, the daughter showed the officer a video. In the video, Jandl is seen reaching for a prescription bottle containing Vicodin on of a refrigerator. She then “tucks it behind the refrigerator and then places the bottle back on the refrigerator,” the complaint states. 

Surveillance set up after first suspicion 

The daughter placed the Vicodin on top of the refrigerator after noticing that it had moved from the back to the front of the drawer it had normally been placed in.

She then adjusted her camera to record the area around the refrigerator. As a result, she caught the video of Jandl allegedly taking her mother’s Vicodin.

‘uhm, for Vicodin.’

At the time she met with the officer, the daughter believed that Jandl had stolen medication from her mother that very day.

On that belief, she and the officer went to and walked into her mother’s residence. There, they spoke with Jandl.

When asked by the officer what he would be there for, Jandl replied, “uhm, for Vicodin,” the complaint states.

She also admitted to putting Vicodin in a container she had in her purse. In Jandl’s purse, the officer found a pill bottle containing various pills. This included seven hydrocodone-acetaminophen pills and one tramadol pill.

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