Woman, 72, tells police she sold heroin to supplement Social Security checks

Cheryl Bartus, of Donora, was caught selling 10 stamp bags of heroin to a confidential informant, police said.

Monongahela police Chief Brian Tempest said an officer pulled Bartus over on Route 88. When she got out of the car, she was dressed in a muumuu and didn't look like a typical drug dealer, authorities said.

Bartus told the officer that her Social Security checks are not enough to live on, so, she said, she supplements them with money made by selling drugs.

Bartus is charged with use or possession of drug paraphernalia and manufacture, delivery, or possession with intent to manufacture or deliver.

Neighbors said her arrest is a shame, but not a surprise.

"Over the years she's gone down the tubes," Claude Gibasiewicz said.

Police believe that the heroin may have been coming from the Monessan area, but the investigation is ongoing. Bartus remained in the Washington County Jail Thursday morning on $25,000 bail.