---
title: "A VA hospital worker stole medical equipment needed for COVID-19 patients and sold it on eBay"
description: "A worker at a Seattle Veterans Affairs hospital is going to jail for stealing equipment needed for COVID-19 patients and selling it on eBay."
date: "2021-01-13"
modified: "2021-01-13"
authors:
  - name: "Paul Szoldra"
    job_title: "Editor"
    link: "https://taskandpurpose.com/authors/paul-szoldra/"
url: "https://taskandpurpose.com/news/veterans-affairs-steal-respirators-sold-ebay/"
categories:
  - "Around the World"
  - "News"
  - "United States"
tags:
  - "Covid-19"
  - "justice"
  - "scandals"
---

# A VA hospital worker stole medical equipment needed for COVID-19 patients and sold it on eBay

![](<https://taskandpurpose.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/5913217-4-scaled-e1608219120538.jpg>)
*(Department of Defense photo)*

A medical worker at a Veterans Affairs hospital in Seattle is headed to prison for stealing equipment needed for novel coronavirus (COVID-19) patients and selling it on eBay.

Gene Wamsley, 42, admitted to stealing ventilators and other respiratory equipment from the hospital where he worked as a respiratory therapist who was involved in, *get this*, the care of COVID-19 patients. And as prosecutors noted in a sentencing memo, Wamsley’s scam was “rather confounding” since he was involved in caring for ill patients suffering from the deadly virus and was, prosecutors wrote, “an eyewitness to \[their\] tremendous suffering.”

According to court records, Wamsley’s thievery began sometime around Jan. 2020 when the hospital reported missing two bronchoscopes used for examining a patients’ airway. Then a third was lost in April 2020. Wamsley admitted selling the three scopes, valued at more than $100,000, to a Florida resident over eBay for the bargain price of $15,750.

Wamsley also stole a $9,950 respirator and sold it on eBay to an Ohio man for $6,000. All told, Wamsley sold five ventilators online, three of which were stolen from the VA. And during a search of his home in June, investigators seized a fourth bronchoscope and a $6,000 sleep apnea device also lifted from the VA.

“This type of fraud strikes at the heart of our efforts to care for our elderly — especially our veterans,” said U.S. Attorney Brian Moran. “Stealing money is bad enough, but stealing equipment needed for life-saving therapies shocks the conscience.”

He was sentenced on Monday to three months in prison and nine months of home confinement, [according](<https://www.justice.gov/usao-wdwa/pr/veterans-affairs-respiratory-therapist-sentenced-prison-stealing-and-selling-medical>) to a Justice Department press release, and ordered to pay $132,291 in restitution.

## Author
Paul Szoldra was the Editor in Chief of Task & Purpose from October 2018 until August 2022. Since joining T&P, he has led a talented team of writers, editors, and creators who produce military journalism reaching millions of readers each month. He also founded and edits [Duffel Blog](<https://www.duffelblog.com/>), a popular satirical newsletter for the military. Before becoming a journalist in 2013, he served as a Marine infantryman in Afghanistan, Korea, and other areas of the Pacific. His eyes still go up every time a helicopter from Camp Pendleton flies over his office in Southern California.

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