Strangest thing taken from ER

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I thought this would be a fun thread...

What is the strangest thing you have ever seen stolen from the ED??

for me- a buttload of those KY packets with some hemocult developer. Rectal exam, anyone??

And we had to stop keeping ambu bags at the head of every bed. they were being stolen for "huffing". go figure.

Specializes in L&D, M/B.

We used to have VCR's in every room on our OB pp floor until they started disappearing. After about 5 were stolen we had to take them out of the rooms. The pts. loved them but it costs to much to keep replacing them!

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Specializes in ER.

I personally don't find anything that is stolen to be strange anymore. Computers, TV's, everything in the cupboards including bedpans and urinals.

However, I did have someone that realized he couldn't get his cans of beer past the metal detector to get into the ER so he poured his beers into a plastic bag, a patient belongings bag, and brought his beer right through metal detection and into the ER.

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Specializes in ER.

We had a patient steal our scanner/radio that we here the ambulance calls go out on-- but little did they know that at was a cheap piece of crap scanner and the minute it was unplugged all the frequency setting were gone so all they got was static!!

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Specializes in Emergency Nursing.

Our department upgraded and bought this fancy new spectulum lights that slide right into the spectulum. Every single light disappeared from the gyn rooms within about 2 weeks. :confused:

I just can't fathom what people are doing with those lights at home.

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Specializes in CVICU, CCU, MICU, SICU, Transplant.

Not ER here but was outside my hospital going in to work and saw a pt with his gown on, getting on a city bus with his IV pump and pole. I'm surprised they let him on, but they did.

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Specializes in ER, telemetry.

We use radios in our ER to communicate with each other, and one was stolen about 8 months ago. The thief proceeded to call threats over the radio, and still pops up on the radio now and then.

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Specializes in ICU, CRU, ER, Med/Surg.

We have TV's in most of our ED rooms and we cannot keep a remote. Thermometers and dopplers are big movers too. Once had a patient elope with all the monitor cables still attached. Just unplugged them from the tram and slipped out the back door. We sent the police to his house to retrieve them.

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Specializes in ER, tele, vascular.
Ok, not in the ER, but right outside of the cafeteria at my old hospital- two guys came in with furniture dollies and rolled the 2 vending machines right out the door and loaded them in their truck..... they were not form the vending company!! THEY STOLE them in broad daylight and it was not until the end of the day that who ever was in charge of these things realized what had happened.

I guess you have to give credit for guts!!

Something similar. Our hospital was getting upgrades, putting plasma TV monitors all over the place. One day construction men are all over the place and a group of guys come in dressed with hard hats, tool belts, etc... take the monitors down and stroll out. Nobody questioned them, police realized what happened by watching the security tapes.

I couldn't steal, the guilt would eat at me forever.

Cam

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Specializes in Emergency Dept, ICU.
I work in a catholic hospital and there is a crucifix in every room. There is at least one stolen every day!

Yeah we have to keep ours behind the nsg station now too.:bow:

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Specializes in Emergency.

That's amazing...I guess they never got to the part "Thou shalt not steal"

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Specializes in Peds/Neo CCT,Flight, ER, Hem/Onc.

Otoscopes that are connected to a wall unit by a curly power cord. They cut the cords and took the scopes that were now inoperable.:banghead:

And on another note: we also have the fiber-optic speculum lights that slide into a plastic speculum. I walked into a room one day after setting up for a pelvic to find the boyfriend of the patient with the light STUCK UP HIS NOSE and lit. Two things about that...first EEEEEWWWWW and second those things get hot. Imagine the look on his face when I told him that the object he had stuck up his nose had just been in some dirty girls you know what and that he was probably going to get syphilis and his nose would fall off. I loved working in the ER at times like that.

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The log book off of the crash cart. Who knows? Also our ortho room seems to be a pretty popular room for browsing and shopping. I once had a family that I caught stuffing their pockets with kling and 4x4's. We do room assignments and stock our own rooms. You better believe I took inventory when they left and charged them for every bit of the supplies they stole. I also had to call security on a crazy lady that insisted on taking the multi-use pack of adult wipes for her 12 y/o daughter that had one episode of diarrhea last week "just in case she had an accident in the car" PUULEEASE. If her diarrhea is that bad lady, those wipes aint gonna take that smell out of your seat fabric.

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