For more than a month, a paramedic found the code needed to access opioid medications used by Greenwood emergency workers and used the drugs for himself, police said.
When fire officials looked more closely, they found all the doses of Fentanyl on two of the Greenwood Fire Department’s ambulances had been compromised, according to charging documents.
Jason Howard, 41, Fishers, was charged with two counts of theft and two counts of possession of a narcotic drug in Hancock County.
But other charges could be possible in other counties, including Johnson County, where court records say Howard also took vials of the powerful drug from ambulances where he worked.
The investigation began in May, when Greenwood Fire Department officials contacted police. The Indiana State Medical Examiner was investigating possible tampering of Fentanyl doses by a Seals Ambulance employee, and asked fire officials to check their doses, the report said.
Fire officials found that the identification numbers on the Fentanyl doses on two Greenwood ambulances did not match their records and none of their reports showed that any doses of the powerful opioid drug had been administered, the report said.
But each of the eight vials on the ambulances had needle puncture marks, showing they had been used, the report said.
As officials continued investigating, they found similar reports in Hancock, Hamilton, Tipton and Marion counties, according to court records.
In total, 34 vials of Fentanyl had been tampered with in March and April, including needle marks showing the drug had been administered.
Time sheets and other records led investigators to Howard, who told officials in a written statement that he had taken the Fentanyl and used it for himself due to a mass he had on his side, the report said.
Howard told investigators he would draw out the drug and replace it with saline and that he had swapped out drugs from Seals Ambulance for the Greenwood Fire Department ambulances, the report said. The Greenwood Fire Department keeps drugs locked and only specific employees have access to the boxes where the drugs are kept. A fire department employee told investigators Howard had asked him to open the locked box at one point to review the doses for a certain drug and was sitting next to him when he entered his code, the report said.
Howard declined to speak with the state police, the report said.
He was arrested earlier this week and taken to the Hancock County Jail.
