LONG ISLAND, New York (PIX11) – “She told me she had bone and brain cancer and that she needed money to pay for it,” said Elizabeth Patricola.
Thousands of people on Long Island, according to the Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota, gave money to 21-year-old Brittany Ozarowski.
“She told me (she had) special treatments, that’s why she wasn’t losing her hair,” said Patricola.
She wasn’t losing her hair because the the DA said Ozarowski didn’t have cancer.
“There was no cancer, only heroin and more heroin,” said Spota.
People donated money to her on her fake website. They held fundraisers or just handed over money. Donation jars are in stores across Nassau and Suffolk County.
On her Facebook page Ozarowki wrote:
“In September of 2011 I was diagnosed with stage two ovarian cancer as well as stomach cancer. After multiple treatments of both radiation and chemotherapy I had beaten cancer as of December of 2011. . . 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.”
“I felt bad from her,” said Nancy Depierro.
Nancy Depierro is another business owner who gave money. Authorities said Ozarowski even scammed her family.
Her grandmother sold her house to pay for her grandmother’s so-called treatments.
“She had every answer, every answer,” said Depierro.
Elizabeth Patricola knows the burden of cancer and would never think someone could fake something so serious.
“Overwhelmed with grief with anger..I couldn’t imagine someone could do this,” said Patricola.
Ozarowski has a prior arrest record. She’s being held on $5,000 bail. She was arrested after a cancer victim’s father tipped off police.
