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Oregon Police Recover Thousands Of Coronavirus Respirator Masks Allegedly Stolen From Nonprofit
The nonprofit was planning to donate the medical masks to local hospitals before they were allegedly stolen.
Thousands of respirator masks allegedly stolen from a Beaverton, Oregon nonprofit have now been recovered and donated out to local hospitals.
The ReBuilding Center, which sells salvaged building materials at discount prices, reported on March 6 that 20 to 25 cases of N95 respirator masks had been stolen from its facilities, according to a news release by the Portland Police Bureau.
Each case had 400 masks, and the losses totaled almost $2,500, according to police. N95 respirators are able to keep a person from inhaling the coronavirus that’s responsible for the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The day after the alleged theft, an employee at the ReBuilding Center spotted someone selling what she believed were the missing cases on the classified listings website Craigslist, according to police.
Vladislav Drozdek, 42, was asking for $350 for one case or $600 for two, Beaverton Police Officer Matt Henderson said in an email to Oxygen.com. He also offered boxes of 20 masks for $20, Henderson said.
The ReBuilding Center worked with police to arrest Drozdek, who was charged with first-degree theft by receiving. Six of the missing cases were recovered at that time, according to police.
After further investigations, on March 21, investigators found seven more cases in a nearby house, police report.
The cases were returned to the ReBuilding Center, which immediately donated them to local hospitals.
The number of masks they donated is roughly double the number Oregon has received from the federal government, the Center’s Executive Director, Jackie Kirouac-Fram, told local outlet KOIN-6 News.
