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A health care worker arrested last year after stealing a patient’s pills at an assisted living facility has landed back behind bars.
E. K. Shearer, 30, of Weirsdale, was booked without bond Wednesday at the Sumter County Detention Center.
She had been placed on three years probation after stealing Hydrocodone and Oxycodone pills from a patient at the Willows at Wildwood.
At the time of Shearer’s arrest, a fellow employee looking for a cigarette lighter spotted a large number of pills in Shearer’s purse. The employee reported what she had seen to the charge nurse. The charge nurse told police the pills were identical to ones taken from a patient two weeks earlier.
When an officer interviewed Shearer, she admitted she had taken a pouch containing the pills from her purse, put it in a trash bag and took it to the dumpster, according to an arrest report from the Wildwood Police Department. She said she was “scared” when she saw that law enforcement had arrived at the facility The officer accompanied Shearer to the dumpster, where she retrieved the bag and the pouch.
Shearer said she had been taking the pills for “a couple a days because her shoulder, back and ankle hurt due to long work hours.”