Fire Rescue Captain Resigns, Surrenders On Theft Of COVID Shots

POLK COUNTY, FL — Polk County Fire Rescue Captain Anthony Damiano turned himself into deputies Wednesday afternoon in connection with coronavirus vaccines stolen from his place of employment, an affidavit said.

According to the Polk County Sheriff's Office, Damiano stole syringes of the Moderna vaccine for his mother. He is accused of ordering a PCFR paramedic to falsify logs to account for the missing vaccines. The paramedic, Josh Colon, was arrested Monday for his involvement.

Detectives held a monitored phone call with Colon and Damiano, and during the call, Damiano admitted to taking the vaccines and advised Colon to report those vaccines as if they fell off the desk at the station, according to the affidavit.

Damiano reportedly told Colon the vaccines were not used and said he could get the syringes that contained the COVID-19 vaccine from his Mazda CX-9 parked at a friend's house in Osceola County.

A search warrant for the Mazda was approved by an Osceola County Judge, and detectives said they found two syringes inside the car. The third syringe was not located in the car.

The suspect's mother told detectives that her son told her he was working on getting her vaccinated, however he never explained how he would do that. According to the mother, she believed due to Damiano's job, he was able to notify her when she would be able to get the vaccine.

Damiano faces a charge of official misconduct and petit theft, according to the Polk County Sheriff's Office. Damiano did resign from Polk County Fire Rescue prior to turning himself in.

Original Patch Story:

A 31-year-old Polk County Fire Rescue paramedic was arrested Monday for stealing three doses of the Moderna coronavirus vaccine, Polk County Sheriff's Office said.

The doses were supposed to be administered to other PCFR first responders, authorities said.

According to the arrest affidavit, Jan. 6, the suspect, Joshua Colon, received three vials containing 10 vaccines each and was directed to administer those to first responders who responded to Station 38 in Davenport to obtain the vaccine. At the end of the shift, he had to report the total number of doses administered.

Colon reported he administered 28 vaccines and two were waste due to possible time of exposure. Later, Colon retracted himself and said that three were waste.

Investigators said days later following multiple requests to turn in the Florida Health COVID-19
Vaccine Screening and Consent forms that he only provided 21. However, the log contained 23 vaccine recipients. Two forms were noticed as missing, and one was missing a date of birth. Colon gave the names of two existing firefighters and a person who did not exist.

On Jan. 25, Colon told deputies he created the forms himself and signed them. He also confessed
two of the names on the log were of existing firefighters and the other one was made up.

Authorities said the suspect told them his supervisor joked with him about getting some vaccines for the supervisor's mother. Colon said he was told by the supervisor to report those vaccines as waste.

According to Colon, he refused to provide those vaccines to the supervisor, at which time the boss said he would tell those higher up in the chain of command that Colon was selling vaccines outside of work.

Colon said he was ordered to go on his lunch break later that day by the boss. The vaccines were left in a refrigerator with a label tab, according to the suspect. After he returned to the station, he told detectives he noticed the label tab was tampered with and three vaccines were missing.

Colon said he did not question his supervisor in reference to the missing vaccines nor did he report the incident to anyone with Polk County Fire Rescue.

Colon told investigators that when he was later asked for the documents for accountability
purposes, he completed the forms to show each vaccine was accounted for and that he created fictitious email addresses and phone numbers.

According to the Polk County Sheriff's Office, Colon faces the following charges:

• Forgery
• Uttering forged instrument
• Falsifying medical records
• Official misconduct
• Criminal use of personal ID
• Creating fictional personal ID

Deputies are investigating if the supervisor had a role in the theft of the vaccines and the creation of fraudulent and forged medical records.

Colon resigned on Friday, according to law enforcement officials.