Three in Custody After Salt Lake Sheriff's Office Recovers Stolen University Hospital Patient Records

Jul 02, 2008 by Elizabeth Ziegler

(KCPW News) Three suspects are in custody in connection to the theft of stolen computer backup tapes containing personal information for millions of University of Utah Health Care system patients. Salt Lake County Sheriff Jim Winder says the bust is an example of good old-fashioned police work.

"I'm extremely pleased. The detectives put substantial hours into it. But also the cooperation amongst the various entities within the Sheriff's Office was superb," Winder says. "And it was just a great example of just good old fashioned shoe-leather activity here and a great resolution."

Winder credits a $1,000 reward for flushing out the tapes and suspects. Within three hours of receiving a tip Monday night from a person interested in the cash reward, Kearns and Magna precinct officers had the stolen tapes in their hands. Burglary and identity theft charges have already been levied against one of the suspects. Another was arrested previously for an unrelated crime. The last suspect was interrogated this afternoon [Wednesday afternoon] and charges were expected to be filed by the end of the day. While critics warned the reward amount was too low, Winder says the sheriff's department knew it was likely to flush out the thieves.

"I think the $1,000 has been very validated because it resulted in exactly the desired outcome," Winder says. "You know, throwing money at a problem doesn't necessarily solve it. One has to look at what demographic one is targeting. In this particular circumstance, I think we had a very good sense of where we were looking. And a thousand dollars, often times, does have significant results."

While possible, Winder says it is unlikely the information was compromised. The tapes were encrypted and require specialized computer recovery equipment to be accessed. The most important thing is the tapes are off the street, where they could have eventually fallen into the hands of someone who knew what to do, Winder says.

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