CLERMONT, Fla. -- An 83-year-old woman became the victim of a thief in just about the last place she would have expected, during a visit to the hospital.

GET WFTV NEWS HEADLINES BY EMAIL 9 a.m. Headlines Noon Headlines 4 p.m. Headlines News of the Strange Breaking News Alerts

According to Augustina Malavet's credit card statements, she did a lot of shopping over the past couple of weeks, including at a Clermont Target store. The only problem is, it couldn't have been her.

Inside her daughter's Clermont home, Malavet is recovering, not just from her latest medical mishap, but from her last stay at South Lake Hospital.

"I feel very bad. I feel disgusted. I'm 83 years old," Malavet says.

She was having chest pains, and when an ambulance arrived to take her away, she says she handed the paramedic her wallet to get her medial cards out. Later, during the admitting process, she got the wallet back, which she kept in her room. But several days later, she noticed two credit cards and a bankcard were missing.

"That's terrible, that's terrible. I never thought nobody could do that to me," Malavet says.

Whoever did it went quickly to work, spending $361 at the Target down the street, another $580 at Marshall's, more on a fancy dinner and at least five other purchases. Then, using her bankcard, somebody cleaned out her checking account. All of it was done while Malavet was in her hospital bed.

"I live in social security and that's the only thing that I have and that's to pay my bills," she says.

While Malavet isn't sure who took her cards, whether it was paramedics or somebody at the hospital, she has filed a complaint with South Lake. Administrators there say, because of privacy purposes, they can't speak to this particular case

But they did say they "offer a safe place to lock up people's belongings, although we encourage all patients to leave their valuables at home."

The hospital, Lake-Sumter EMS and Clermont police are all looking into this and have vowed to get to the bottom of it. Malavet and detectives now hope video cameras inside the Target store may help pinpoint exactly who was using her card.