An employee at Inova Alexandria Hospital has been fired, and the Alexandria Police Department is investigating after a patient’s credit cards were stolen from a room at the hospital and used at a nearby store.
A woman in hospital scrubs with an Inova lanyard around her neck was later identified by an Inova Alexandria Hospital staffer, according to a recently released search warrant affidavit. The police have filed no charges, and although Inova did not disclose the employee’s job title, the hospital system confirmed that the employee is no longer employed at the hospital.
“This incident is currently under investigation by APD,” Tracy Walker, the APD communications manager, told ALXnow.
Police responded to the hospital on June 8 after getting a call from a man claiming that his wife’s purse, credit cards, and IDs were stolen from her hospital room. The man also told the police that he was receiving fraud alerts on his phone stating that a person was attempting to use his wife’s credit cards at the Target Skyline store (5115 Leesburg Pike) in Falls Church — roughly two miles away, according to the search warrant affidavit.
“He made statements that he was not the one who attempted to purchase items at Target due to him being with his wife at the hospital,” APD said in the search warrant affidavit. “On this same date I spoke with loss prevention of the Bailey’s Crossroads Target and was shown video of the person attempting and successfully using the victim’s credit cards. A photo of the female subject wearing hospital scrubs and an Inova hospital lanyard could be seen using the cards.
APD did not disclose the amount of money stolen.
The photo was then taken to the hospital, where “it was advised that Security and Hospital staff had identified the person in question as an employee of the Alexandria Inova Hospital that day,” police said in the search warrant affidavit.
