Learn How to Prevent Elder Abuse, Exploitation in West Bloomfield

Pamela Glasner will travel from her home in Connecticut to West Bloomfield in September in the hope of keeping other elders from going through what happened to her parents. 

She will speak Sept. 30, 6:30 p.m., at The Berman Center for the Performing Arts, when a modified version of a documentary she helped produce, "Last Will and Embezzlement", will be shown. The film stars Mickey Rooney, a Hollywood legend who filed suit against his stepson and others, alleging they defrauded him out of millions of dollars. 

Glasner's own story began after her mother's death, while her father was in a nursing home. When her brother called the home to let them know he would be taking over, a social worker told him his brother was taking care of everything. 

"My brother said, 'I don't have a brother'," Glasner said. "She said, 'I have to go', and a few minutes later, my brother got a call from their corporate counsel." 

The day of her mother's funeral, the man who had claimed to be her brother met Glasner at her mother's home. He was the husband of the president of their synagogue. The man told Glasner he had gotten her mother to write a new will naming him as executor, and had her father sign a power of attorney document. 

The man, who was never charged with a crime, sold her parents' home and put the money in her parents' checking account, over which he had control. 

"I thought no problem, I'll just go to the police," Glasner said. "They told me, 'We hear about this all the time.'." 

She hopes the movie, as well as the panel discussion that follows, will help people understand that "the problem is bigger than you think it is, so protect yourself." Those who attend will learn what to look for, "so they can stop it before it happens." 

"As uncomfortable as it is to make them sit down and talk about this, it's a hell of a lot better to live through that discomfort than what I lived through," she said. 

Tickets for the September event will go on sale soon. For more information on "Last Will and Embezzlement", visit the movie's website. 

Correction: The position of the man who laid claim to Glasner's parents' home was incorrectly stated in the original version of this article. He was the husband of the synagogue president.