War Crimes

Does the local VA hospital enable thieves to victimize vulnerable veterans?

by Gabriele Valentine

Some live in wheelchairs. Others spend their days and nights bedridden with old combat wounds from World War II Korea or Vietnam. And then there are those who suffer from disabling diseases that make unassisted living an impossibility. Many of the long-term patients at the Philadelphia VA Medical Center in University City are forced to rely on the kindness of doctors, nurses, health-care assistants and even janitors in order to survive. But, it turns out that some of the veterans are also victims of an organized gang of part-time criminals.

According to patients, and current and former VA employees, a gang of crooked health-care workers is responsible for a years-long crime wave that targets the most vulnerable veterans. The money stolen from these vets is used to finance a low-level loan-sharking operation at the VA, say sources, who note that the thieves "loan" their ill-gotten cash to fellow employees at high interest rates.

This year, the VA police have managed to arrest one VA employee who was caught stealing a vet's cell phone. He was found guilty in court but, after paying a fine, was transferred from the nursing home to the VA hospital across the street. Another employee was caught stealing money from a severely disabled veteran several years ago and fired, but rehired by the janitorial department.

"The thief is protected by a guy here at the VA who is connected to a very powerful local congressman," one VA supervisor tells City Paper. "He is also close to a Democratic ward leader in West Philly."

The supervisor claims VA police avoid the crooked cleaner, even though they suspect he plays a key role in the loan-sharking operation. "They won't go near the guy now," the VA source says, "even when he's up to no good."

Some gang members are said to work for a subcontractor that provides health-care assistants to the hospital and nursing home.

"These guys come into my room in the middle of the night with a little pen light, checking out my night stand," one wheelchair-bound vet says. "I yell, 'What do ya want?' And they run right out."

Adding that, "I have about $20 a week to spend, that's it," the vet says he's had more than $60 and two DVDs stolen during the past two years. "That's a lot of money for me to lose."

Meanwhile, a midlevel VA hospital employee notes, "Many of us live paycheck to paycheck, so when folks run out of money before payday, they borrow from the sharks here. Everybody knows who the loan sharks are and where to find them. You borrow $20, you pay back $30. That's how it works."

Like everybody interviewed for this story, the VA employee and the disabled veteran requested anonymity because they fear retribution from the thieves or their friends. Besides, they also claim, the administrators would rather ignore the problem than address it.

"This summer we had one interim director here from the Coatesville VA," a medical staffer says. "I asked again and again for an appointment with him so I could tell him about the problems here. Finally his office said, 'Sure, he says to call Monday and make an appointment.' I called Monday and found out the guy had left the job on Friday and was back running the Coatesville VA full time."

Last May, a local TV news crew investigating thefts at the VA nursing home was arrested by VA police. Their videotape was seized and the crew held for hours inside a holding cell at the VA Hospital. Their reports on CBS-3 focused on the thefts, but never touched on the loan-sharking. "After a couple of stories about us on TV, things got better for a while," one resident says. "The police started putting in more surveillance cameras, patrolling the hallways at night. That lasted for the summer. Now, we're back to only one cop on duty at night in the nursing home. Nobody is really watching the workers at night. We have money stolen every single week and nobody cares. We served our country with honor. The sacrifices some of us made! We lost limbs, lost normal lives for good! And now we're treated like shit."

The U.S. Attorney's Office is charged with prosecuting crimes at the Philadelphia VA Medical Center; the VA police is supposed to pass the crime reports to them for further review. In the course of researching this story, though, CP reviewed more than 150 VA-police crime reports and found almost every single one ended with these words: "US Attorney Notified, No Further Police Action Taken. This Is A Final Report."

(editorial@citypaper.net)