Sticky-Fingered Hospital Patient Helped Himself to Lots of Drugs: Cops

JOLIET, IL — A hospital patient broke into a crash cart and grabbed a few bottles of drugs before he was spotted by a nurse, police said.

Christian Cracco, 28, was admitted to Presence St. Joseph Medical Center after he went to the emergency room and complained of abdominal pain Saturday morning, police said.

A passing nurse reportedly noticed Cracco hunched over a crash cart and — when she looked closer — saw he had broken the plastic lock on a drawer full of drugs.

The nurse and a security guard confronted Cracco and found he had stashed three different heart medications and a drug to block the effects of opioids in the pocket of his sweatshirt, police said. Cracco also allegedly tossed a vial of sterile water in the trash.

Cracco, a Shorewood resident, was taken from the hospital to the Will County jail.