A nurse was arrested Thursday morning for stealing the credit card of a dead Staten Island coronavirus patient and using it to make purchases, police said.
Danielle Conti, 43, of Old Bridge, NJ, was working at Staten Island University Hospital North when she took the credit card of a 70-year-old man who had died of COVID-19 on April 12, cops said.
She was charged with grand larceny, criminal possession of stolen property and petit larceny, according to police.
She spent less than $100 on the man’s American Express card, police allege. It was not immediately clear what she bought.
The man’s 37-year-old daughter discovered the charges and walked into a Staten Island police precinct station house to report the malfeasance on April 28, cops said.
A hospital spokesman said Conti, who has been an employee there since 2007, was suspended.
It was unclear whether she would be paid during the suspension.
“Danielle Conti has been temporarily suspended and faces termination in response to the felony charges,” the spokesman said. “We are working closely with the law-enforcement authorities and the hospital is conducting its own investigation.”
Conti was given a desk-appearance ticket and will be arraigned at a later date, the Staten Island District Attorney’s Office said.
She has no prior arrests in New York, cops said.
Contact information for her lawyer was not immediately available.
“Who knows how much has already been going on?” a police source said.
“It’s just a waiting game to see those people brought to justice.”
Another police source said, “There’s bad apples in every industry. It’s just that these are the people you think are going to take care of you. Meanwhile, they’re committing grand larcenies against you.”