California Man Steals Coronavirus Specimen Awaiting Lab Testing From Hospital, Abandons It In Shopping Cart

The Davis Police Department on Sunday arrested a California man for stealing a specimen that was awaiting a lab testing for coronavirus from a hospital in Davis, California.

The suspect, identified as 40-year-old Shaun Lamar Moore, stole a sealed COVID-19 specimen from the Sutter Davis Hospital on Saturday.

“Sutter Davis Hospital is committed to providing high-quality care to the Yolo County community and beyond. We take this situation very seriously. We are conducting our own internal investigation, as well as working closely with county officials and law enforcement on the matter,” the hospital said in a statement given to local media.

The officers took charge of the investigation after the hospital officials reported that on Saturday afternoon a man entered their facility and stole a sealed specimen that was to be tested for coronavirus.

“I think the concerning thing was, is somebody going to purposefully try to infect people using this virus?” Davis Police Deputy Chief Paul Doroshov told local media.

On Saturday evening, the department received another call from CVS Pharmacy in Davis reporting that they have found an abandoned sealed coronavirus specimen in a shopping cart.

“At that point, confirmed it hadn’t been opened or tampered with based on the security seals,” Doroshov said.

Based on the information received the police identified the suspect and arrested Moore when a patrol officer spotted him riding a bicycle across the Richards Boulevard overpass near the intersection of Cowell Blvd and Research Park Drive on Sunday morning.

The reason behind Moore’s action is still not identified.

“Are there issues going on with this person that are not quite rational? Are there other motivations? So, it really could take a lot of different courses,” said Doroshov.

Davis Police said they were familiar with Moore and were trying to figure out if any mental health conditions triggered the incident.

“Although the incident is very serious, Detectives do not believe he intended to harm himself or others,” the department said in a statement.

“As much fear as this may have caused in the community, we wrapped it up pretty quickly so hopefully those fears can subside now,” Doroshov added.

Moore was taken into custody without an incident and was booked into the Yolo County Jail on burglary charges.