We are learning more about the woman who goes by the name "Anita Gilbert." Investigators tell 17 News she not only is an animal hoarder but a con artist.
A woman who calls herself "Anita Gilbert" is back behind bars.
Kern County Animal Control officers raided her Tehachapi home in July and found at least 60 neglected pets and 14 dead animals in a freezer.
In a jailhouse interview the next day, Gilbert told KGET Reporter Alex Valle she never mistreated her pets. But after missing a court date and running from authorities for months, Gilbert was arrested again Thursday night. This time Gilbert was arrested by a bail bondsman in Reseda.
''These hoarder people are the most destructive, weird people I have ever seen,'' the bondsman, Bob Herman, said. ''They make normal crooks look like good citizens.”
After she was arrested, officers say they found more than 20 cats, one dead in a freezer, in the motel room Gilbert was renting.
''She is not
sort of a con artist,'' Herman said. "She's one of the slicked ones I have seen in a number of years.”
Herman tells 17News in his investigation he found the Tehachapi woman has rented apartments and been issued credit cards under about 10 different names. A man from northern California says one of the names belongs to his sister, the real Anita Gilbert.
"This individual's actions were totally contrary to my sister, and to have her name being affiliated to any form of animal cruelty would have made her very upset,” Lou Senno said.
Senno said his sister lost her battle to cancer last year. He said the real Anita Gilbert was a successful business woman in Florida who donated to many animal charities.
Gilbert is being held at a sheriff's station in Los Angeles County. Kern County authorities will not say when, but deputies do confirm they will be transporting Gilbert back to Kern County to answer to her charges.
At this time, no identity theft charges have been filed.
