Charges: Woman Stole $4,000 from Lakeville Woman to Pay Phone Bill

A Lakeville woman was bilked of more than $4,000 by a woman using the money to pay mostly for her own exorbitant cell phone bill.

Pamela Ann Kabes, 52, of Minneapolis, faces two felony counts, and one misdemeanor count of theft by swindle for admitting to that she took $4,016.46 from the bank account of a Lakeville woman to pay for her cell phone bill which included five phones, as well as a couple payments for a self storage unit. The average monthly payment of each cell phone bill was more than $280.

According to the complaint, the unauthorized charges were made between Vov. 29, 2010 and Nov. 1, 2011, but went undiscovered for most of that time until the victim balanced her checkbook.

The complaint says Lakeville Police managed to trace the transactions back to Kabes via her IP address, but when confronted, originally said she was authorized to make the withdrawls. At a later meeting with police however, Kabes acknowledged that the victim has "called her wanting her money back and that she has stopped taking the victim’s calls because she can’t pay her back." She also told police she understood she owed the victim a “few thousand” dollars.

Kabes agreed to pay the victim back, but no payments have been made, the complaint says.

Kabes could face more than 10 years in jail if convicted. She's due in court later this month.

The charges made that were unnoticed for more than a year:

• November 29, 2010: $388.89 to Verizon Wireless
• December 16, 2010: $324.08 to Verizon Wireless
• January 13, 2011: $374.96 to Verizon Wireless
• January 20, 2011: $374.96 to Verizon Wireless – Attempted Only
• January 26, 2011: $374.96 to Verizon Wireless
• February 14, 2011: $258.40 to Verizon Wireless
• March 14, 2011: $266.85 to Verizon Wireless
• April 18, 2011: $285.98 to Verizon Wireless
• May 19, 2011: $286.00 to Verizon Wireless
• August 19, 2011: $289.58 to Verizon Wireless 
• September 21, 2011: $276.90 to Verizon Wireless
• October 4, 2011: $450.00 charge to Public Storage
• October 20, 2011: $308.26 charge to Verizon Wireless
• November 1, 2011: $131.60 charge to Public Storage