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A Forest Lake nurse who pretended to check on a patient so he could steal the man’s medication evaded jail time for the offense.
Gregory Thomas Welcher, 30, was sentenced in Ramsey County District Court Thursday to five years probation on one count of felony-level theft. He also was ordered to spend one day in jail, but was given credit for the day he already logged at the Ramsey County Correctional Facility.
Welcher pleaded guilty to the charge this past December.
Welcher visited the home of a White Bear Township couple several times throughout April of 2016 to check on the husband’s abdominal wound. Welcher was working for Interim HealthCare at the time, according to the criminal complaint.
One evening, he claimed to be at the home for a routine visit, but he acted oddly and asked to check on the patient’s wound.
While there, Welcher took the man’s bottle of oxycodone pills out of the room, saying that he needed to record the prescription numbers. When he left the home later that night, half of the bottle’s contents were missing — nearly 48 pills.
A manager at Interim HealthCare said that Welcher was also suspected of stealing Vicodin from a different patient. When asked about the apparent pill thefts, Welcher told the manager that he had a substance abuse problem but “didn’t deny or admit” involvement, the complaint said.
Welcher was suspended from his work duties and later resigned. A complaint was also submitted to the Minnesota Board of Nursing, charges said.