Two men working at the Paul-d'Egine private hospital in Champigny-sur-Marne, in Val-de-Marne, suspected of having stolen an artificial respirator in the establishment, were arrested and placed in police custody Thursday evening, we learned from a judicial source. "Everything started with information obtained by the police indicating that a respirator was for sale on Le Bon Coin," said the Créteil public prosecutor's office on Friday.
When questioned, the director of the private clinic Paul-d'Egine confirmed that this kind of material was not available over the counter. He added that he "saw a similar respirator in a sports bag in the office of one of his employees," the same source said.
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Sold for 450 euros on Le Bon Coin
Thursday evening, police in hiding therefore waited for the man in question to leave the hospital. He was arrested with the sports bag containing the respirator which he is suspected of having stolen. Another man waiting for him in a car fled but was quickly identified as a hospital worker, too. He was later arrested at his home in Seine-et-Marne.
The advertisement on the classifieds site Le Bon Coin proposed this respirator for sale for the sum of 450 euros. The man arrested with the sports bag is a 29-year-old biomedical engineer. The one who fled is a 42-year-old maintenance worker.
At this stage, no other flight of this type could be established in this clinic. Faced with the Covid-19 pandemic, the demand for respirators increased sharply. Hospital officials have recently alerted to a possible shortage of this kind of equipment in the face of the influx of patients.
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