Homeless woman cleans out good Samaritan's home

Renovo, Pa. — A homeless woman took advantage of a friend by robbing him while he was out of town, police say.

Jeni Lyn Cowan, 50, was sitting in the driveway of a friend's home on July 5 when he came home, the man told police. She had been kicked out of her boyfriend's home and needed a place to sleep, she told her friend. Cowan had a small grocery bag of her belongings with her.

The victim invited her to stay with him and took her to the store to buy some personal hygiene items and food, which he paid for, the man told Officer James Knarr of the Renovo Police Department. Cowan continued to stay at the man's house, even while he left town for work the following week.

When he arrived home on July 12, he found a crack pipe on his bed, according to charges. He ordered Cowan out, but as she was packing, he noticed one of the bags was full of Avon jewelry boxes, which the man had bought for his ex-wife, Knarr wrote in the affidavit.

The man took the jewelry back before someone came to give Cowan a ride. Suspicious that she left with 13 trash bags full of belongings when she had only arrived with one small bag, the man searched his house and discovered numerous items were missing, charges say. Included in the missing items was $500 and a $5,000 diamond engagement ring from his deceased mother's purse, an Apple iPad, approximately $160 in quarters, another $3,000 in jewelry, a coat, and two blankets. The total value of the items is estimated at $9,355.

The victim told police he should have searched Cowan's other bags before she left, but he was "too trusting of a person."

Cowan was charged with felony theft.

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