Coronavirus Respirator Masks Donated To Hospitals In Oregon After Thief Is Tracked Down

N95 respirator masks have been stolen in Oregon, but they have since been tracked down after the thieves sold them on Craigslist. These have been put up for sale to capitalize on the current situation with COVID-19, but at pumped-up prices.

Police officers have responded to a call made on March 6 about a theft at The Rebuilding Center in Portland, Fox News reported. The case involved 20 to 25 cases of N95 respirator masks, which are currently in high demand. Each case had about 400 masks inside and the loss for these was close to $2,500, according to police estimates. Initially, the perpetrators were virtually unknown.

Police were then alerted by the victim that someone was selling what might have been the stolen masks on Craigslist. They set up a meeting to entrap the suspect in the city of Beaverton. With the help of the Beaverton police, the suspect was apprehended and was named Vladislav V. Drozdek, a 42-year-old male.

Six cases of the masks were recovered, but it was revealed that the rest were still missing. Further investigation yielded seven additional boxes, all of which were stored at a home.

Stories of face mask thefts have been common since the outbreak of the coronavirus started and mass hysteria about these masks ensued. A report on Dublin Live relayed the story of a Dublin hospital that had such a theft happen earlier in March. The hospital has since introduced extra security measures while the country braced for the effects of coronavirus.

In other news, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo ordered state police to look into the rising cases of mask thefts, Business Insider reported. Aside from that, he also urged them to be vigilant about thefts of hospital equipment as well as break-ins reported at medical facilities. He said that these put the lives of healthcare workers at risk more than the COVID-19 patients did.