Beach nurse charged with stealing dead man's credit card

VIRGINIA BEACH

Michael Puopolo was found slumped over in his car in the parking lot of a BJ's Wholesale Club last week. He was pronounced dead at Sentara Bayside Hospital.

Six hours later, a man in hospital scrubs used Puopolo's credit card at Best Buy to purchase a laptop computer, police said.

On Tuesday, police arrested a Sentara Bayside nurse and charged him with the crime. Matthew J. Wiseman, 24, is facing one count of credit card theft and one count of credit card fraud, both felonies. He was working in the emergency room when Puopolo arrived, police said.

Puopolo's wife, Claudia, said she first thought something was wrong when hospital staffers couldn't find her husband's money clip, where he kept his Visa card and cash.

When she called the credit card company to cancel the card, she learned it had been used at Best Buy to buy an $1,800 laptop hours after her husband died.

"I said, 'My husband was dead. He didn't use it. Believe me.' "

The missing money clip and credit card charge made her worry that her husband had died of a heart attack while being robbed.

A relative called the police, who reviewed the store's surveillance camera tape and saw the man in scrubs buying the computer. Hospital workers helped identify him, police said.

Claudia Puopolo was relieved to learn it wasn't a violent robbery.

"I'm grateful my husband didn't die at the end of a gun," she said.

Wiseman, who lives in Virginia Beach, was fired Monday, said Cheri Hinshelwood, a Sentara Healthcare spokeswoman.

"We sincerely regret that a grieving family is suffering the additional hardship caused by this incident," Hinshelwood said. "Sentara Healthcare is committed to ensuring a safe environment for our patients, including protection of their privacy and their personal possessions."

Claudia Puopolo said she just wants the money clip back. It was her gift to her husband on his last birthday.

Aaron Applegate, (757) 222-5122, aaron.applegate@pilotonline.com