UNUSUAL ACTIVITY

NY Nurse Pleads Guilty to Stealing Dying COVID Patient’s Credit Card

Danielle Conti, 45, will lose her nurse’s license after swiping the card in April 2020 from a patient who died three days later.

A nurse at a Staten Island hospital will lose her state license after admitting to stealing a dying COVID patient’s credit card last year. Danielle Conti, 45, swiped the card from a 70-year-old patient, Anthony Catapano, in April 2020 in order to buy herself groceries and gas, according to a criminal complaint. Catapano died of COVID complications three days later. The fraudulent purchases were discovered by Catapano’s daughter, Tara Catapano, who said her suspicions were aroused as she checked her father’s credit card statement after his death. She called American Express “like an absolute lunatic,” she said, when she realized Catapano had been on a ventilator at the time of the unauthorized charges. Conti, who had worked at Staten Island University Hospital since 2007, was arrested in May 2020. Last week, she pleaded guilty to a felony charge of fourth-degree grand larceny and a misdemeanor charge of petit larceny.