#Middlebury #Veterans
It’s hard to fathom how low some criminals will go. Right in the middle of the COVID crisis, a respiratory therapist working for the Department of Veterans Affairs was nabbed for theft. Hospitals were sweating out having enough space and equipment to take care of patients, and medical personnel were struggling to find enough protective gear for themselves. So what was this respiratory therapist doing? He was stealing ventilators and selling them on eBay.
He stole not only ventilators but bronchoscopes and other respiratory support equipment – just the medical stuff COVID patients need to keep breathing while their bodies heal. Among other things, he sold on eBay a whopping five ventilators in two months – March and April – right in the middle of the COVID chaos.
Staff at the VA hospital knew the items were missing, of course, and had reported each instance. They probably did a daily count of materials, worried about how they would cope with an influx of patients. Then someone thought to check sales of those medical items on eBay, and there they were.
The VA Office of Inspector General stepped in, as well as the U.S. attorney. The suspect initially denied involvement, of course. Criminals always do. He said someone else was using that seller name on eBay and that he hadn’t stolen anything, even though eBay listings and IP addresses traced back to his house.
Search warrant in hand, the authorities collected all manner of stolen medical equipment from the guy’s house, including CPAP machines and masks, ventilation tubes and more. EBay sales records were found, complete with serial numbers of the missing items. The U.S. Attorney’s Office spoke with buyers of some of the equipment.
But one piece of the evidence was damning. The final nail in the crook’s coffin was his own cellphone with photos of some of the items he stole.
Theft of government property can net a 10-year prison sentence. Hopefully, that 10 years will apply to each individual piece of equipment this criminal stole.
© 2020 King Features Synd., Inc.
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