By Keith Lawrence
Messenger-Inquirer
OWENSBORO, Ky. — Owensboro police arrested a Yellow Ambulance Service emergency medical technician Friday night in an undercover investigation into theft of money from patients.
Lt. Tim Clothier, head of the Criminal Investigations Division at the Owensboro Police Department, said David Michael Herron, 42, of Corydon was charged with one count of theft by unlawful taking of more than $500 -- a felony punishable by up to five years in prison.
But he said more charges are likely.
“The evidence shows that he has possibly done this seven other times,” Clothier said.
“It’s bad that someone took advantage of a position of trust like this,” he said. “But this shouldn’t be a negative on the ambulance service. As soon as they suspected something, they contacted us and worked with us in the investigation.”
Clothier said the ambulance service contacted police Wednesday, saying it had a potential problem with one of its EMTs. So police set up a sting.
“We didn’t want to put the public at risk by having an ambulance run with lights and sirens,” Clothier said. “But we didn’t want him to have an opportunity to do it again either.”
So, police found a local Realtor to lend them a furnished house for the sting.
Undercover officers were hidden in the house and video cameras were set up in the rooms.
Clothier said Herron was dispatched to the house during his first 30 minutes on the job Friday, on a regular run to assist a bed-ridden patient who had allegedly fallen out of bed.
He said Herron was caught on camera removing $700 of the $800 that was in the “patient’s” wallet on a coffee table in another room.
The “patient” was working undercover with police and the money was city property.
Clothier said Herron was arrested when he returned to Yellow Ambulance Services’ headquarters on Friday.
Copyright 2009 Messenger-Inquirer