Nurse accused of stealing 100s of pills from elderly residents at facility

PUYALLUP, Wash. — A nurse is accused of stealing oxycodone from several patients at a Puyallup assisted-living facility, ranging in age from 65 to 98 years old.

Dolores Ebbert, 90, is one the patients Puyallup police interviewed after Meridian Hills assisted-living facility became aware of an issue and alerted local law enforcement and the state.

“I was in so much pain, I broke down,” she said. “I said, ‘Doctor, doctor, I’m just going crazy with pain.’”

"A huge decline in her health," her granddaughter Mary Lower said. "In her activity. Her desire to live."
Ebbert said the nurse had gone out of her way to help her with her oxycodone.

“She said, ‘I will just pick them up for you,’” she said. “Well, that was my oxycodone she was picking up … and I thought, oh that’s wonderful! Then my children won’t have to make those special trips!”

But now she and her granddaughter say that nurse was helping herself to those pills.

One of the police reports in the case stated in one incident, the nurse “was sent to the pharmacy to pick up 90 5mg oxycodone pills” for Ebbert, but “dropped off only 40 of the oxycodone pills to the facility.”

Note: This story previously stated the DSHS anonymous tip line as 1-800-END-HARM. The correct number is 1-866-END-HARM.

Watch the full report below:

VIDEO: Nurse accused of stealing 100s of pills from elderly residents at facility VIDEO: Nurse accused of stealing 100s of pills from elderly residents at facility

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