Four individuals have been arrested in connection with the theft of old hospital beds and scrap metal valued at thousands of dollars from a storage yard at Neshoba General Hospital.
“These items were intended to save local residents money and keep Neshoba General up and running,” said Neshoba County Sheriff Eric Clark.
John Thomas Harvey, 46, of Carthage, and Jeffrey Little, 56, of Kosciusko, face charges of grand larceny and false pretense for their involvement in taking and attempting to sell the stolen items for scrap.
Two others, Ralph Lewis McDonald, 43, and Evie Pullin, 36, were also charged with grand larceny as alleged accomplices in the theft.
Security footage showed the suspects using two vehicles and a trailer to haul away four 30-foot aluminum handrails and approximately four hospital beds from the storage yard behind the hospital on the evening of September 21.
Investigators tracked the cut-up handrails to local scrap yards, where transaction records helped link Harvey and Little to the theft. This led to the arrest of all four suspects.
Pullin, McDonald, and Little turned themselves in on October 2, while Harvey surrendered the following day.
Hospital officials had planned to use the handrails for a new walkway and intended to repurpose the motors from the beds. The stolen handrails, worth over $7,000, were scrapped for about $208 by the suspects. The hospital beds have not been recovered and are believed to have been destroyed.
“Nothing was salvageable,” Sheriff Clark added.
Replacing the beds is estimated to cost Neshoba General about $1,553 each, highlighting the financial impact of the theft on hospital resources.
