Man Working for MA-Based Company Stole More Than $350K Worth of Human Flesh from Philadelphia Hospital

By Melinda Carstensen

A Pennsylvania man has been arrested after investigators say he tampered with records and stole $357,000-worth of human skin.

Gary Dudek, 54, of Wallingford, worked as a sales representative for Organogenesis, a Massachusetts-based regenerative medicine company, and sold skin grafts to Mercy Hospital in Philadelphia.

Police say he ordered skin for the hospital from November 2011 to July 2013, allowing him to make purchases willy-nilly, Philadelphia’s NBC10 reports.

When the hospital conducted an audit in January, they realized they’d never received their orders — and that they were out $357,000. Surveillance cameras also caught Dudek transporting skin grafts from the hospital to his car.

Police aren’t sure of his motives, why he stole so much flesh or where he stored it, but they believe he was trying to make commission off his sales.

While hospital employees declined to comment on the incident to NBC10, Dudek’s attorney issued a statement, suggesting the hospital sue his client instead of filing a criminal suit.

“If Mercy Hospital has suffered losses and they can be deemed to be as a result of Mr. Dudek’s actions, then perhaps a civil suit could have been initiated,” Eugene P. Tinari, the attorney, said. “But to take this into the criminal arena against a man who has been nothing but hard working and law abiding his entire life is a bit draconian in my view.”