Former Hospital Employee Allegedly Stole Pores and skin Grafts in California

A person in Southern California has been arrested for allegedly stealing from three space hospitals. However the issues he stole weren’t your run-of-the-mill objects. The person made off with about $300,000 in surgical tools and pores and skin grafts, in keeping with the Mercury Information.

Jason Brauner, a 47-year-old man from San Jacinto, California, allegedly posed as a hospital worker to pilfer the extremely uncommon property. The Riverside County Sheriff stated in a press launch that Brauner was arrested on Aug. 6 and charged with industrial housebreaking, grand theft, and receiving stolen property.

Brauner was first recognized as a suspect on July 9, 2025, after a theft of medical tools at Eisenhower Well being, a hospital in Rancho Mirage, not removed from Joshua Tree Nationwide Park. The San Diego County Sheriff’s Workplace deputies stopped Brauner’s car on Aug. 6 in Del Mar, simply north of San Diego, in keeping with the Riverside County Sheriff. Brauner’s automobile allegedly had stolen medical tools in addition to stolen hospital attire.

For sure, theft of pores and skin grafts isn’t the type of factor that hospitals see frequently. And it’s unclear what Brauner might have deliberate to do with them. Ashley Davis, the communications director for the American Affiliation of Tissue Banks, advised the Mercury News, “There’s no respectable medical marketplace for stolen grafts. The business takes safety very critically.”

Regulation enforcement obtained a search warrant for Brauner’s house in San Jacinto and located medical provides value between $10,000 and $25,000, in keeping with the Riverside County Sheriff. Brauner had allegedly been promoting stolen objects on Fb and OfferUp.

Authorities say Brauner was tracked utilizing cellphone tower information, which led investigators to Hoag Hospital in Newport Seaside on Aug. 6. The hospital was requested to evaluate safety footage that exposed somebody stealing hospital tools. License plate readers have been then used to seek out Brauner’s car in Del Mar, in keeping with the Mercury Information.

Brauner had beforehand labored on the Eisenhower Well being for a contractor that supplied cleansing, meals service, and amenities administration, in keeping with the hospital safety director’s assertion to police. Authorities consider Brauner is answerable for different thefts at hospitals in June and July within the cities of Loma Linda and Newport Seaside, California.

Brauner is being held on $100,000 bail on the John Benoit Detention Middle in Indio, California. The decide had initially thought-about bail at $50,000 till a sheriff’s deputy warned Brauner might promote objects on-line to doubtlessly flee, in keeping with the Mercury Information.