This story from yesterday’s Trib is just so over-the-top that I had to share:

A 27-year-old woman was arrested for theft Thursday after allegedly befriending an 85-year-old man at the library and exploiting him for money, county prosecutors said.

Candy Marabanian, of Oak Lawn, Ill., concocted an elaborate story about a fictitious dead husband to convince an elderly man from the Gold Coast to give her $2,600, according to court records.

Marabanian, who is married to an 82-year-old who is still alive, according to prosecutors, first met the man at the Newberry Library on July 25. Marabanian offered to help the man carry his books home, prosecutors said, and later went out with him to lunch.   Continue reading here.