Hospital Employee Arrested After Robbery Attempt, Foot Chase

(Updated at 12:05 a.m. on 12/23/21) A Virginia Hospital Center worker has been arrested and charged in a bizarre attempted robbery at the hospital.

Police say 48-year-old Alexandria resident [name redacted], an employee at the hospital’s cafeteria, tried to rob his own employer over the weekend.

According to police, [redacted] took a taxi to the hospital around 4:00 p.m. on Saturday. While the cab waited outside, [redacted] allegedly went to the food service office in the cafeteria, confronted his manager with a knife, and demanded the combination to the safe. When the manager insisted she didn’t know the combination, police say, [redacted] bound her hands and feet with electrical cord, placed the safe on an office chair, and wheeled the chair out to the waiting cab.

The taxi driver became suspicious as [redacted] was loading the safe into the trunk and jumped out of the cab, according to police. At that point, hospital security ran outside. [Redacted] is then accused of getting into the driver’s seat of the cab and trying to drive away. The cab driver, however, somehow managed to jump into the passenger seat of the hybrid taxi and kill the ignition with the press of a button.

Police say [redacted] then fled on foot. Officers quickly located him and, after a brief foot pursuit, [redacted] was taken into custody without further incident, according to police.

[Redacted] was charged with abduction, grand larceny, two counts of robbery, and possession of PCP, according to Arlington County Police spokesman Dustin Sternbeck.