Former employee of retirement village accused of pill theft
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A former employee of a North Strabane Township retirement village was arrested Wednesday by township police for allegedly stealing narcotic painkillers while working as a licensed practical nurse at the facility.
Danielle Nestor, 29, of 211 Vine St., Canonsburg, was arraigned before District Judge Jay Weller on charges of theft, reckless endangerment, possession of narcotics, illegal dispensing of prescription medication and tampering with records while working at Consulate Retirement Village.
Officer Kristopher Wagstaff, who filed the charges against Nestor, said she was working as an LPN when she allegedly took Oxycontin twice in September and once in October.
The director of Consulate contacted police Sept. 22 after discovering that a blister pack of 14 Oxycodone tablets and the corresponding narcotics control record was missing. A master narcotics control record also was discovered to be falsified by another LPN.
“The LPN is in charge of the drug cart and the only one with a key,” Wagstaff explained. “At shift change, an outgoing audit of the cart is done with the LPN going off duty and the LPN coming on duty. That is when it was discovered something was missing.”
Nestor claimed to have an urgent problem Sept. 22 with a patient and gave the key to a medical technician before leaving abruptly without going through the required audit.
Wagstaff said that Nestor also allegedly removed 94 Oxycodone tablets from the drug cart. She reportedly replaced the drug with Tylenol in two of the blister packages and used an anti-psychotic medication to replace two of the packages. The anti-psychotic drug was not prescribed for the patient listed on the packages.
“She taped the back of the packages to conceal the theft,” Wagstaff said.
Police also learned that the narcotic drug control record Oct. 7 indicated Nestor gave a Percocet to a patient, but the patient was not at the facility at that time.
Nestor told Wagstaff that she has a drug problem. She also reportedly admitted to sharing some of the drugs with friends.
Nestor was released on $50,000 unsecured bond. She faces a preliminary hearing before Weller Oct. 22.