Video Clips of Lori Coffman Breaking into My Parents House

Impact Statement from Lisa Bialon Zimmer

Your honor I would like to tell you about the impact Lora Coffman has had on my family. This will include events that prompted me to install video cameras in my parents’ home and the subsequent capture of her on video stealing out of my elderly mother’s purse while she slept.

My parents are Margaret and Bernie Bialon and live in Upper Middletown, PA. Dad is 83 and Mom is 82. I am their only child, Lisa, and I live in Indiana. My parents worked from their teens until their 60’s and have lived since then on Social Security and a small pension. They are now very feeble and need frequent medical care. 

On August 26, 2023, my mom called me to say that her purse was missing. She called later that day to say Dad found her purse outside lying up against a tire on his truck. An envelope containing $6,000, a sum that had taken them several years to accumulate, was gone. This money was to go for my dad getting new dentures. His gums have atrophied, making his current dentures extremely painful to wear. My parents are old school, they don’t use credit or debit cards, they pay for their needs only with cash. When they want something, they save up for it. Now Dad will have to wait several more years before they save up enough money for new dentures. 

A few months passed and Mom’s purse this time was found in the basement. As with the previous incident, it was very puzzling how her purse could have possibly got downstairs because my mother rarely goes down there due to her poor balance. The money that was in the purse was missing again. 

A few months went by and while outside Dad saw someone wearing a white coat coming out of the basement door. He became frantic because Mom was in the house alone. He went in, checked on my mom and searched the entire house but didn’t find anyone. My parents were petrified with fear knowing someone could have been in their house walking around while they were home. This event, coupled with the others mentioned above, was very disturbing and prompted me to install video cameras throughout my parents’ house. I couldn’t always be there, but the cameras would at least enable me to monitor my parents and the house from a distance and hopefully catch whomever was stealing from them.

On March 24, 2024, Dad called me in a panic and asked me to look at the camera feeds. He kept cash in a drawer in the kitchen and it was missing. Dad was saving up money to buy something for his fishing boat. He had counted the money earlier in the day and now it was gone. He was sure Lora Coffman had taken his money as she was the only visitor that day. Lora had been coming by their house very frequently for unexplained visits and would always find an excuse to roam around the house. Unfortunately, I hadn’t set up the cameras properly and they did not record anything during Lora’s recent visit.

Later that same day Dad went to Lora and her husband Mark’s house in Keisterville to confront them about his missing money. Mark confirmed that Lora had taken the money and said Lora had a problem with gambling. Mark made Lora give the money back to my dad. My dad told Lora to never come back to my parents’ house again. She had broken any trust they had in her and my parents felt like Lora had taken advantage of their age and friendliness to gain access to their home and steal from them.

On Friday November 22, 2024, around 1:45 in in afternoon, I got a call at work from my mother, and she was so distraught that I could barely understand what she was saying. After getting her to calm down, Mom said that Lora had got in the house, and she had to chase her out. My dad was not at home at the time.  Mom had been very sick and just got out of the hospital a few days prior.  I explained to her that I would have to end the call so I could review the video feeds on my phone. To my horror I captured four different videos of Lora in different locations inside my parents’ home. This upset me so bad I was shaking and unable to concentrate on anything at work for the rest of the day.

In the first video Lora can be seen entering through the basement door with her white hoodie up, and gloves on. Seeing someone who has been stealing from your parents sneak into their home again is extremely unsettling. I had no idea what her intentions were nor what she would be capable of doing if caught by my elderly parents. I feared she could cause them physical harm.

In the second video Lora is seen exiting the stairs to the basement and coming into my mom’s sitting room where Mom was sleeping in her recliner. At this time Lora took the hoodie down from her head so you can clearly see her face. Later in the video Lora is seen coming over to where my mom is sleeping, leans over and picks up my mom’s purse. Lora carried the purse through the sitting room and into my mom’s bedroom and then proceeded to go through the contents of the purse. Lora is seen in the video taking items from the purse and stuffing them into her hoodie’s pouch. The video also shows Lora carrying an envelope of money in her hand as she comes out of my mom’s bedroom.

At this point I was overwhelmed with anger and fear. Watching someone who has repeatedly targeted my elderly parents, someone who knowingly took advantage of their poor health and kindness, watching them violate my parents’ home and exploit my mom’s vulnerability absolutely took my breath away and drove me to tears in fear for my mother. It’s just incomprehensible to me how people can be so cruel.  

The third video shows Lora looking outside to see if my dad has come home. Lora then leans over my sleeping mom and attempts to put mom’s purse back where she found it. However, Lora knocks over a bottle of pills that were sitting on a stand beside my mom’s chair and wakes her up. It takes Mom a few seconds to wake up and by this time Lora has run off to the kitchen. Mom yells at her, gets up and follows Lora down the stairs leading to the basement. My mom may have been sick but she’s a fighter however, I was so afraid my mom would get hurt by confronting Lora. Again, this person, Lora, was right beside my mom, my sleeping

absolutely vulnerable elderly mom, stealing from her. I was so scared to think what could have happened if my mom had woken up just two seconds earlier. What would Lora have done to her? I fear that Lora would have become physical, hit my mom. I was so fearful of what could have happened.

In the fourth video Lora can be seen running out the basement door.

I called my mom back in a panic and told her everything I had seen in the videos and then called my dad, gave him a brief description of what I had seen and told him to get home and to call 911. I told him to tell the police I had the video evidence of Lora’s theft on my phone. I was so upset I was shaking and crying profusely. Those are my elderly defenseless parents and Lora has repeatedly terrorized and stolen from them for over a year. Finally, we had video evidence of her doing it.

Impact

We, the entire Bialon family, have never been victims of any crime. To say this has been a horrible experience is an understatement. It violated our trust; it has taken away our innocence and the peaceful atmosphere in our home we had since we moved into it in 1969. I now monitor the video feeds several times a day looking for Lora to return. On my last trip home, I thought I heard someone in the basement early in the morning and forced myself to go down and investigate. I was trembling and scared to death, but I went down there to protect my parents. I knew that despite Lora having been told to stay away and having been caught that it was a reasonable expectation for her to try to steal from my parents again.

My parents harbor a lot of anxiety about this experience and don’t sleep well anymore. They both sleep with flashlights in their beds in case they hear something. The health of my parents has gone downhill because of the stress this experience has caused. They both ask me constantly if I have any new information about the case. They live in fear Lora will come back to the property and do damage. She has totally destroyed the safe, peaceful feeling of our home.

As mentioned, I live in Indiana. It takes me 9 ½ hours to get to my parents. The distance creates a feeling of helplessness which causes me to suffer from insomnia from constant worrying about Lora coming back to do my parents more harm. I fear for my parents’ safety with Lora free to commit more crimes against my parents and other elderly neighbors. I live too far away to get to them quickly but I do what I can. I have had to make many trips back to PA to handle this situation, coming to court dates, talking to the police officer, buying and setting up video cameras, using all my leave time from work. I have spent countless hours talking to people at the District Attorney’s office, the courthouse and doing research about Lora Coffman. The money in this situation is not important. The safety and wellbeing of my elderly parents is my greatest concern. 

I did some research and have found that Lora has committed crimes against other people in the area, for instance the other robbery case presented here where Ms Zentkovich was the victim. Her robbery took place one month before Lora was caught stealing from my parents.  Another case involves Lora robbing Kathy Rohaly in 2022, another elderly woman. A disturbing fact from that is one of Lora’s aliases listed in the PA court system is Kathy Rohaly. 

Lora Coffman has been harassing and stealing from my immediate family, my extended family, and my friends for YEARS........ and these are only the instances where she has been caught. I would bet that interviews with elderly people in the area would reveal a whole lot more accounts of missing items and money. Lora’s crime spree against the elderly has gone unabated thus far. The plea bargaining, ankle monitors and suspended sentencing has not deterred her in the least and she has got to be stopped. 

Your honor, my family and I plead with you to punish Lora Coffman to the fullest extent of the law for the crimes she has committed against us. If home detention is the most that can be awarded we ask that Lora be confined to one of her three addresses that is furthest away from the Keisterville/Upper Middletown area.