Long Beach VA hospital clerk accused of stealing veterans' private information

LONG BEACH, Calif. (KABC) -- A clerk working at Tibor Rubin VA Medical Center was arrested for allegedly stealing private information from more than 1,000 veterans.

VA police officers were doing routine patrols on the medical center campus Thursday when they saw a personal vehicle with what appeared to be commercial license plates attached, according to a press release from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

When officers ran the vehicle identification number, they found out that the attached plates did not belong to the car. That's when they pulled the vehicle over.

While interviewing the driver, the officers found an unlabeled pill container with various pills inside and conducted a search of the vehicle.

During the search, officers found pills that the driver did not have a prescription for, plus private VA patient information for numerous veterans including names, dates of birth and full Social Security numbers.

Following the initial arrest, VA police obtained a search warrant, which resulted in $1,031 in recovered federal property and an additional amount of private VA patient information being recovered.

Officials said in total, approximately 1,028 veterans' information was found outside of VA control. However, they say there is no indication that any of the information was being used fraudulently.

The VA said it will send letters to all of the potentially impacted veterans and provide 12 months of free credit monitoring services.