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A man who stole a plethora of drugs from a crash cart at the Brandon Regional Health Centre was sentenced to more than two months of house arrest this week.

Donnelly Bell pleaded guilty to two counts of theft under $5,000 in Brandon provincial court.

“The crash cart is prepared to make sure that it’s ready to be used in emergencies. It’s sealed for that purpose,” Crown attorney Brett Rach said.

“Certainly I would suggest that — not only is this akin to a theft from a pharmacy — what’s also aggravating is that there was the potential that if medical staff were dealing with an emergency, they might not have had the medications they required to complete their task. It could have been very dangerous.”

On Feb. 11, police were called to BRHC after staff caught Bell and another woman stealing a variety of medications from the cart — including amiodarone, epinephrine, isoproterenol, and sodium chloride.

The range of medications are used to treat multiple ailments, including cardiac arrests, anaphylaxis, irregular heartbeat, seizures and low blood pressure.

A number of syringes, empty and loaded, were also missing.

Security quickly located Bell and the woman, who were intoxicated at the time, hiding behind a curtain.

Almost two months later, Bell was caught stealing a bottle of Smirnoff Vodka from the Liquor Mart on Victoria Avenue.

“Both of these incidents stem from an addiction Mr. Bell has been living with,” said defence lawyer Ryan Fawcett, adding Bell has been very proactive in attending addictions counselling and programming.

Bell also did not know what the medications were when he took them, Fawcett said, and everything was returned.

“None of (the medications) appear to be drugs of addiction, they just happened to be medications that were available,” Fawcett said.

Judge John Combs said he was glad to hear Bell had taken the initiative to get treatment and was doing well, but could not overlook the severity of this particular theft.

Combs sentenced Bell to 75 days of house arrest.

“The potential danger that resulted in someone like yourself being in the possession of those drugs was significant,” Combs said. “The potential for disaster was significant.”