Man Accused of Stealing $350,000 of Human Skin from Philly Hospital
A Pennsylvania man is accused of stealing human skin from a hospital over a period of more than two years, costing the hospital $350,000.
Gary Dudek, 54, worked as a sales rep for a medical company that supplied the hospital with skin grafts, which gave him an "open purchase order" to order skin for the facility. After a financial audit this January, though, Mercy discovered he'd ordered hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of unauthorized skin, which never made it to the hospital.
Investigators believe he repeatedly stole the grafts—which, again, are human skin—between November 2011 and July 2013.
Gary Dudek, 54, of Wallingford, Pennsylvania, is charged with theft and tampering with records. According to investigators, Dudek repeatedly stole skin grafts from Mercy Philadelphia Hospital between November 2011 and July 2013.
Dudek was seen twice on surveillance video taking the skin grafts from the hospital and putting them in his car.
Police don't know his motives, but they suspect he was planning to sell the skin and collect the commission.
Dudek's lawyer believes the hospital should be suing instead of pursuing a criminal case against his client.
"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," he told NBC News.
