Fairfield, Connecticut – A woman named Michelle Phelan went into the house of her neighbor and stole an urgent care medication that belonged to the neighbor’s child and exchanged it with a low-dose aspirin.
The woman arrested was 41-year old Michelle Phelan residing in Mill Hill Road was charged of illegal possession of a controlled substance less than 4 ounces. She’s also charged of risk of injury to a minor, sixth degree larceny and third degree burglary according to a police report released on Monday.
According to the police, the medication that was stolen from the child was in a capsule form which was taken by Phelan for personal use. She was given a permission to come inside the house of the victim but this time, she wasn’t.
On October 27, a resident of Mill Hill Road reported to the Fairfield Police Detective Bureau saying that her home was burglarized by a neighbor. She also told the police that over the past month, she and her husband noticed that the pills prescribed in an urgent care clinic for their child were disappearing from their kitchen cabinet.
The parents became apprehensive about the medication that their child was taking and started to place a surveillance camera in their kitchen where the capsule-form drug was placed. The camera footage then led to the arrest of Phelan as evidence that she was the one responsible for stealing the medicine and replacing it with an aspirin which is seen by urgent care clinics as very dangerous for the child.
Michelle Phelan was seen in the camera footage walking right to the kitchen cabinet where the prescription bottle was place. She opened the bottle and removed some capsules before getting out of the house. After the parents checked the bottle, they found out that six capsules were tampered which was proven true by the police.
The police investigating on the case said that the suspect have been taking the child’s medications, opening the capsules and replacing their contents with aspirin. If an urgent care near me would take a look at the contents of the pills, they would see that it’s no longer the original medicine inside but a low-dose aspirin.
After thorough investigation, it was found out that the prescription medication of the child was removed from the capsules then swapped with ground-up aspirin. The investigators are concerned not only about the stealing that happened but the danger that was put in danger because Phelan tried to make it look that the pills were still there when they’re not.
The investigation ended in an arrest warrant for Michelle Phelan who was released after she posted a bond for $15,000 and scheduled to appear in court on November 11.