Delaware County Man Accused of Stealing Skin from Hospital
Police Wednesday arrested a Delaware County man and charged him with theft and records tampering. His crime? He allegedly stole skin from Mercy Hospital. Skin from the hospital.
NBC 10’s David Chang reports the man, 54-year-old Gary Dudek, is accused of taking so much skin that he cost the hospital $357,000 with phony purchase orders. According to investigators, the scheme lasted from November 2011 to July 2013; the hospital didn’t notice until a financial audit this January.
Want this to get weirder? Authorities have no idea what he did with the skin grafts. “They suspect however that he was trying to make commission off of sales,” NBC 10 reports, so he probably wasn’t sewing a suit of human skin together. Phew!
His lawyer released a statement, saying he’s just a hard-working guy and, really, skin theft is a civil matter I guess?
If Mercy Hospital has suffered losses and they can be deemed to be as a result of Mr Dudek’s actions then perhaps a civil suit could have been initiated. But to take this into the criminal arena against a man who has been nothing but hard working and law abiding his entire life is a bit draconian in my view.
“A bit draconian” is what the Greeks would say when Draco was nicer than usual, probably.
[NBC 10]
