NEW YORK CITY — A Staten Island nurse is facing felony charges after allegedly stealing the credit card of a dying COVID-19 patient and using it to buy gas and groceries, police said.
Police say Danielle Conti, 43, stole the credit card of 70-year-old Anthony Catapano — a COVID-19 patient who was hooked up to a ventilator.
Police said Conti, a New Jersey resident who has worked as a nurse at Staten Island University Hospital North since 2007, used the card on April 9 to ring up $60.23 in charges. The victim's daughter, Tara Catapano, claims Conti used the card at a gas station and grocery store.
Catapano said in a Facebook post that her father entered the hospital on April 4 and was there until he died on April 12.
"Due to the pandemic no visitors are allowed, therefore that means a hospital employee stole my father's credit card, used it and then returned it to his wallet," she wrote in a Facebook post on April 27.
The grieving daughter also claimed that when she finally got her father's belongings after his death, his cellphone, phone chargers, eyeglasses, money and a buzzer were all missing and still have not been returned to her.
"How would they feel if this was their parent?" she wrote. "I'm going through so much with losing my father, this is the absolute last thing that I need."
Conti has been charged with grand larceny. She will appear in Staten Island Criminal Court at a future date.
"Danielle Conti has been temporarily suspended and faces termination in response to the felony charges," Staten Island University Hospital said in a statement. "We are working closely with the law enforcement authorities and the hospital is conducting its own investigation."
This story was originally published by Mark Sundstrom on WPIX in New York.