http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=742547
The dining room of the nursing home at the Zablocki Veterans Affairs Medical Center isn't such a fun place to hang out anymore.
A man assumed to be a maintenance worker walks off with a big TV from the Zablocki Veterans Affairs Medical Center on April 4.
Photo/Courtesy of Zablocki Veterans Affairs Medical Center
The thief simply walked in the veterans center wheeling a dolly through the south entrance.
Buy a link hereThe 52-inch flat-screen TV around which veterans gathered to watch Packers games, movies and their favorite shows was stolen on a Friday afternoon earlier this month by a man who wheeled a dolly through the building's south entrance, plucked the TV from its wall mount, and walked right back out.
VA police are investigating but have not identified the thief caught on security cameras while entering and leaving the facility, said John W. Zewiske, the center's public information officer. Information about the theft has been shared with other law enforcement agencies, he said.
The residents who enjoyed the big flat-screen, meanwhile, are adjusting to life with an older, smaller TV and wondering just what kind of person steals from a veterans nursing home.
"I don't see how a person could do something like that to veterans," said Bill Crivello, 74, who served in the Korean and Vietnam wars with the Air Force and moved into the center earlier this year after his wife died after a stroke. "It's sad. . . . Anyone who would steal from a veteran, I don't respect."
Based on surveillance video, investigators have determined that the thief walked through the center's W. National Ave. entrance at 3:55 p.m. April 4, pushing an empty dolly down a hallway.
That entrance is open to the public during the day and is monitored by the cameras, not employees, Zewiske said.
The man - who was wearing a blue short-sleeve shirt and gray pants and appeared to have thinning hair and a short, dark beard - made his way to the dining room on the ninth floor.
He put the TV on the dolly, covered it with a dark tarp or blanket and was out the door by 4:09, Zewiske said.
John Washington, a resident who crossed paths with the thief, said he and other residents didn't think anything was odd about the incident at first.
"I didn't know (he was) stealing it," said Washington, 82, who served with the Navy in the Pacific Theater during World War II. "I thought (he) was taking it downstairs for repairs or something. I was going in the dining room when (he was) coming out. We met at the door. I said, 'Be sure to put it in my van,' but that was just a joke. He smiled, but he didn't say anything.
"One (resident) was in the room when the TV was taken, but he didn't look up," Washington said.
The theft has been the talk of the ninth floor, with some of the 60 or so residents speculating that it was an inside job, Crivello said.
"I don't really know how they did it because I wasn't in there, but everyone talks around here and you listen to the gossip," Crivello said. "It was funny how they got it. It was right out from under our noses."
VA police - armed officers who have a station in the building - haven't ruled anything out, Zewiske said.
"It's a public building, so people can walk in and out," he said. "I would rather not speculate, but (an inside job is) certainly under investigation."
Anywhere from 5,000 to 7,000 people enter the building every day, Zewiske said.
Zewiske said the TV will be replaced. He did not know whether it had been donated to the nursing home.
For now, however, residents have suspended their Friday afternoon movies and are trying to make do with a regular TV with a roughly 20-inch screen, Washington said.
How does the replacement set compare with the stolen 52-inch flat-screen?
"It don't," Washington said. "It's a small TV, so you can get up close and watch it, but it's not the same."
