Latest news with #EisenhowerHealth
Gizmodo
4 days ago
- Gizmodo
Former Hospital Worker Allegedly Stole Skin Grafts in California
A man in Southern California has been arrested for allegedly stealing from three area hospitals. But the things he stole weren't your run-of-the-mill items. The man made off with about $300,000 in surgical equipment and skin grafts, according to the Mercury News. Jason Brauner, a 47-year-old man from San Jacinto, California, allegedly posed as a hospital employee to pilfer the highly unusual property. The Riverside County Sheriff said in a press release that Brauner was arrested on Aug. 6 and charged with commercial burglary, grand theft, and receiving stolen property. Brauner was first identified as a suspect on July 9, 2025, after a theft of medical equipment at Eisenhower Health, a hospital in Rancho Mirage, not far from Joshua Tree National Park. The San Diego County Sheriff's Office deputies stopped Brauner's vehicle on Aug. 6 in Del Mar, just north of San Diego, according to the Riverside County Sheriff. Brauner's car allegedly had stolen medical equipment as well as stolen hospital apparel. Needless to say, theft of skin grafts isn't the kind of thing that hospitals see on a regular basis. And it's unclear what Brauner may have planned to do with them. Ashley Davis, the communications director for the American Association of Tissue Banks, told the Mercury News, 'There's no legitimate medical market for stolen grafts. The industry takes security very seriously.' Law enforcement got a search warrant for Brauner's home in San Jacinto and found medical supplies worth between $10,000 and $25,000, according to the Riverside County Sheriff. Brauner had allegedly been selling stolen items on Facebook and OfferUp. Authorities say Brauner was tracked using cellphone tower data, which led investigators to Hoag Hospital in Newport Beach on Aug. 6. The hospital was asked to review security footage that revealed someone stealing hospital equipment. License plate readers were then used to find Brauner's vehicle in Del Mar, according to the Mercury News. Brauner had previously worked at the Eisenhower Health for a contractor that provided cleaning, food service, and facilities management, according to the hospital security director's statement to police. Authorities believe Brauner is responsible for other thefts at hospitals in June and July in the cities of Loma Linda and Newport Beach, California. Brauner is being held on $100,000 bail at the John Benoit Detention Center in Indio, California. The judge had initially considered bail at $50,000 until a sheriff's deputy warned Brauner could sell items online to potentially flee, according to the Mercury News.
Yahoo
09-08-2025
- Yahoo
San Jacinto man accused of Stealing $100K in hospital equipment
A 47-year-old convicted felon suspected of perpetrating numerous thefts at hospitals, netting tens of thousands of dollars of equipment, while posing as an employee at each facility, pleaded not guilty Friday to grand theft and other charges. Jason Suniga Brauner of San Jacinto was arrested Wednesday following a monthlong Riverside County Sheriff's Department investigation. Along with theft, Brauner is charged with burglary, receiving stolen property, and being a prior-strike felon. According to Sheriff's Sgt. Bryan Whitley, on the afternoon of July 9, deputies were alerted to an alleged theft at Eisenhower Health on Bob Hope Drive, resulting in the loss of unspecified medical gear. Whitley said the ensuing investigation identified Brauner as the alleged perpetrator. "Brauner ... gained access to restricted areas of the facility while dressed as hospital staff," the sergeant said. "Over three separate incidents in June and July, Brauner stole more than $100,000 worth of surgical equipment and skin grafts, wearing blue scrubs and a surgical mask to blend in with hospital personnel and avoid detection." Whitley said further investigation confirmed the defendant had committed similar thefts at hospitals in Loma Linda and Newport Beach. "There may be additional victims," he said. On Wednesday afternoon, San Diego County sheriff's deputies, acting on information received from detectives in Riverside County, spotted the defendant driving southbound in Del Mar and initiated a traffic stop, taking him into custody without incident and turning him over to Riverside County law enforcement. Detectives additionally executed a search warrant at his residence in the 1400 block of Potomac Circle, "resulting in the recovery of additional stolen medical supplies valued between $10,000 and $25,000," according to Whitley. He was arraigned Friday before Superior Court Judge Arthur Hester at the Larson Justice Center in Indio. At the request of Brauner's public defender, Hester scheduled a Veterans Court eligibility hearing at the Riverside Hall of Justice for Aug. 15. Information regarding the defendant's prior military experience was unavailable. Former service members who have committed nonviolent offenses can be referred to the Veterans Court program and, if accepted, they're able to receive therapy, obtain vocational training, and exercise other options while on probation. The program is intended to keep offenders out of jail. Brauner is being held on $100,000 bail at the Benoit Detention Center. Details on Brauner's prior convictions were unavailable, but court records indicated that he served time in state prison. This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: San Jacinto Man Accused of Hospital Thefts Pleads Not Guilty to Grand Theft Solve the daily Crossword
The Independent
16-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Wink Martindale, legendary TV host and early interviewer of Elvis Presley, dies at 91
Wink Martindale, the beloved host of hit game shows like 'Gambit' and 'Tic-Tac-Dough' has died aged 91. The veteran TV presenter was a mainstay on US screens, hosting on of the first recorded television interviews with Elvis Presley. Martindale died on Tuesday 15 April, his publicist Brian Mayes said, at Eisenhower Health in Rancho Mirage. He had been battling lymphoma for a year. Mayes told the press that Martindale was 'doing pretty well up until a couple weeks ago.' The TV host was one of the heavyweights of American television. The blackjack-based quiz show 'Gambit' debuted on the same day in September 1972 as 'The Price is Right' with Bob Barker and 'The Joker's Wild' with Jack Barry. Martindale wrote in his 2000 memoir 'Winking at Life': 'From the day it hit the air, 'Gambit' spelled winner, and it taught me a basic tenant of any truly successful game show: KISS! Keep It Simple Stupid. 'Like playing Old Maids as a kid, everybody knows how to play 21, i.e. blackjack.' 'Gambit' had been beating its competition on NBC and ABC for over two years. But a new show debuted in 1975 on NBC called 'Wheel of Fortune.' By December 1976, 'Gambit' was off the air and 'Wheel of Fortune' became an institution that is still going strong today. Martindale bounced back in 1978 with 'Tic-Tac-Dough,' the classic X's and O's game on CBS that ran until 1985. 'Overnight I had gone from the outhouse to the penthouse,' he wrote. He presided over the 88-game winning streak of Navy Lt. Thom McKee, who earned over $300,000 in cash and prizes that included eight cars, three sailboats and 16 vacation trips. At the time, McKee's winnings were a record for a game show contestant. 'I love working with contestants, interacting with the audience and to a degree, watching lives change,' Martindale wrote. 'Winning a lot of cash can cause that to happen.' Martindale wrote that producer Dan Enright once told him that in the seven years he hosted 'Tic-Tac-Dough' he gave away over $7 million in cash and prizes. Martindale said his many years as a radio DJ were helpful to him as a game show host because radio calls for constant ad-libs and he learned to handle almost any situation in the spur of the moment. He estimated that he hosted nearly two dozen game shows during his career. Martindale wrote in his memoir that the question he got asked most often was 'Is Wink your real name?' The second was 'How did you get into game shows?' He got his nickname from a childhood friend. Martindale is no relation to University of Michigan defensive coordinator Don Martindale, whose college teammates nicknamed him Wink because of their shared last name. Born Winston Conrad Martindale on Dec. 4, 1933, in Jackson, Tennessee, he loved radio since childhood and at age 6 would read aloud the contents of advertisements in Life magazine. He began his career as a disc jockey at age 17 at WPLI in his hometown, earning $25 a week. After moving to WTJS, he was hired away for double the salary by Jackson's only other station, WDXI. He next hosted mornings at WHBQ in Memphis while attending Memphis State. He was married and the father of two girls when he graduated in 1957. Martindale was in the studio, although not working on-air that night, when the first Presley record 'That's All Right' was played on WHBQ on July 8, 1954. Martindale approached fellow DJ Dewey Phillips, who had given Presley an early break by playing his song, to ask him and Presley to do a joint interview on Martindale's TV show 'Top Ten Dance Party' in 1956. By then, Presley had become a major star and agreed to the appearance. Martindale and Presley stayed in touch on occasion through the years, and in 1959 he did a trans-Atlantic telephone interview with Presley, who was in the Army in Germany. Martindale's second wife, Sandy, briefly dated Presley after meeting him on the set of 'G.I. Blues' in 1960. In 1959, Martindale moved to Los Angeles to host a morning show on KHJ. That same year he reached No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart with a cover version of 'Deck of Cards,' which sold over 1 million copies. He performed the spoken word wartime story with religious overtones on 'The Ed Sullivan Show.' 'I could easily have thought, 'Wow, this is easy! I come out here, go on radio and TV, make a record and everybody wants to buy it!' he wrote. 'Even if I entertained such thoughts, they soon dissipated. I learned in due time that what had happened to me was far from the ordinary.' A year later he moved to the morning show at KRLA and to KFWB in 1962. Among his many other radio gigs were two separate stints at KMPC, owned by actor Gene Autry. His first network hosting job was on NBC's 'What's This Song?' where he was credited as Win Martindale from 1964-65. He later hosted two Chuck Barris-produced shows on ABC: 'Dream Girl '67' and 'How's Your Mother-in-Law?' The latter lasted just 13 weeks before being canceled. 'I've jokingly said it came and went so fast, it seemed more like 13 minutes!' Martindale wrote, explaining that it was the worst show of his career. Martindale later hosted a Las Vegas-based revival of 'Gambit' from 1980-81. He formed his own production company, Wink Martindale Enterprises, to develop and produce his own game shows. His first venture was 'Headline Chasers,' a coproduction with Merv Griffin that debuted in 1985 and was canceled after one season. His next show, 'Bumper Stumpers,' ran on U.S. and Canadian television from 1987-1990. He hosted 'Debt' from 1996-98 on Lifetime cable and 'Instant Recall' on GSN in 2010. Martindale returned to his radio roots in 2012 as host of the nationally syndicated 'The 100 Greatest Christmas Hits of All Time.' In 2021, he hosted syndicated program 'The History of Rock 'n' Roll.' In 2017, Martindale appeared in a KFC ad campaign with actor Rob Lowe. He is survived by Sandy, his second wife of 49 years, and children Lisa, Madelyn, Laura and Wink Jr. They are from his first marriage which ended in divorce in 1972.
