NEW YORK (AP) -- Police on Thursday arrested a suspect in the theft of a desktop computer containing data for a program monitoring the health of police, firefighters and other people exposed to dust after the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center.
The computer was taken from an office at Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan at about 7 p.m. on July 10. It contained Social Security numbers, dates of birth and some test results from participants in the program, police said.
Police identified the suspect as Malcolm Mitchell, 27, of the Bronx, and described him as a disgruntled employee who was doing work as a painter for a contractor at the hospital.
Mitchell surrendered at a police station at about 12:30 a.m. Thursday; charges were pending.
Participants' names were not on the computer, but hospital officials were concerned that the other information could be used for identity theft and sent a letter telling them what happened and urging them to do a credit check, police said.
Mount Sinai said in a statement Thursday night that the computer had been recovered and that a technical consultant and the hospital's information technology department had determined that no patient information was accessed.
Several federally funded programs have been monitoring the health of workers and others who were exposed to dust from ground zero.
