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Thief steals rings from elderly patient

Healthcare Security Weekly, March 10, 2008

A thief robbed a 91-year-old woman of three heirloom rings as she lay in bed at a Vancouver hospital recovering from the amputation of her leg.

Police said the thief may have previously struck at other hospitals in the region and were looking at similar crimes, according to news reports. Police are hunting for a man captured on surveillance footage leaving the eighth-floor ward at Vancouver General Hospital after the March 1 theft.

The thief approached the elderly woman and whispered to her that he would take her rings, which included her wedding band, for cleaning, reported the Globe and Mail. A spokesman for Vancouver Coastal Health, which runs the hospital, said thefts from patients are rare, but added that patients are warned to leave jewelry at home. British Columbia Health Minister George Abbott described the thief as a jerk and a low-life, "akin to the lowest form of human life," reported The Canadian Press.

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