BEDFORD – A Bedford man was arrested after stealing prescription medication.
Bedford Police arrested 39-year-old Jesse Felton on two counts of theft.
On Thursday, April 11th, at 7:35 p.m., Officer Taylor Daughterty responded to the Bedford Post Office to meet with the financial clerk. She told police someone had stolen her prescription medication of Hydrocodone 325MG, 60 tablets from her purse. The prescription was filled on April 1 and picked up by the woman on April 2. The theft occurred on April 5. The pharmacy was able to provide video footage of the prescription being filled, and there were 60 pills put in the bottle.
The woman told police while at work she took one pill at noon. When she got off work and into her car around 6:45 p.m. to head home she grabbed her phone out of her purse and the prescription bottle fell out of her purse and that is when she realized it was empty.
The woman said she had worked at the post office for 26 years and didn’t believe a co-worker would have gotten into her purse and stolen the medication.
Detective Sgt. Trevor Shelhart took over the investigation. On April 16, at 1:22 p.m. police received a video of the theft from the US Postal Service Special Agent Garrett Schlobohm.
In the video a male is seen taking the medication from the woman’s purse. The male was interviewed by the Postmaster and admitted to taking the pills.
Sgt. Shelhart and Special Agent Schlobohm decided the case would best be handled locally instead of federally, but he would provide assistance in the case.
On that day, the woman had refilled her prescription bottle with Excedrin Migraine pills and put it back in her purse. She then placed her purse where she normally kept it but this time she “had a feeling” that the theft might happen again, so she set her phone to record video and propped it up facing her purse. The entire video is 90 minutes long. She began recording at 7:30 a.m. and captured the theft at 9:05 a.m. In the video Felton is seen sitting down and reaches for the purse, opens it and removed the pill bottle. He reads the label and dumps a few pills out of the bottle into his hand and then places the bottle back into the woman’s purse and leaves the area.
The woman reviewed the video and contacted the Post Master. He then spoke to Felton who confessed to taking the woman’s pills. He was asked to return his USPS gear and resigned.
Felton then texted the woman after resigning and apologized.
On April 17, Sgt. Shelhart spoke to Felton, who admitted he took the pills because he has been dealing with back pain, saw the opportunity to take the pills, and “made a stupid decision.” Sgt. Shelhart said Felton was forthcoming and expressed remose for his actions during the interview.
The information was forwarded to the Lawrence County Prosecutor’s Office and a warrant was issued for Felton’s arrest.
