CENTERTON, Ark. — A former Centerton firefighter has been arrested after allegedly stealing morphine from an ambulance and forging the written logs to cover his tracks, according to court documents.
On Feb. 16, the Centerton Police Department (CPD) was contacted by the city's fire chief about missing narcotics from an ambulance. The chief said he noticed one 10 mg vial of morphine was unaccounted for, CPD said.
31-year-old Michael Brown, a firefighter and paramedic in Centerton, was discovered to be the last person to log the narcotics into the safe lock boxes the vials are stored in. Detectives also learned that Brown had left early that day. "The time stamps of the access to both narcotics safes was just prior to Brown leaving work early sick," the arrest report states.
In the written log of narcotic counts, Brown's signature was on both sheets but the signatures on the sign-out sheets were two other paramedics, who told detectives they were somewhere else at the time their signatures were logged. Police say their signatures must've been forged.
Video footage, according to CPD, also shows neither paramedic signing out the narcotics at the times recorded on the sheet.
The arrest report says a CPD detective and a Washington County deputy met up at Brown's residence to ask him about the missing morphine.
The CPD detective said in the report that he asked Brown why he thought he was there. "Brown made the statement, 'Maybe about some missing narcs from the ambulance,'" the report says.
While sitting uncuffed in the passenger seat of the detective's patrol car, Brown allegedly admitted to forging the signatures of the other paramedics on the log sheet and taking the morphine for himself.
"When I asked Brown if he had a problem he told me he did," the detective said.
Brown was arrested and transported to Benton County Jail and was booked.
He faces forgery and drug fraud charges.
According to Centerton Fire Chief Matt Thompson, Brown was fired on the same day of his arrest.