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Son Who Was Shot And Later Died Had Belongings Stolen At Hospital, Mother Says

CHICAGO (CBS) -- A grieving mother has been demanding answers from Mount Sinai Hospital, after someone stole her deceased son's belongings.

When victims are being rushed to emergency rooms, their belongings are logged and secured. But at Mount Sinai, they failed at the securing responsibility – and for one family, that was just the beginning.

"I'm not at peace. I'm stressed out," Gwendolyn Douglas told CBS 2's Chris Tye. "I feel like I'm letting him down, and I am."

Douglas' son, Justin Terrell McGhee, was shot and killed last October while dropping his daughters a babysitter.

Records show Mount Sinai Security stored his wallet, state ID, driver's license, and several credit cards. Douglas said all those things ended up being stolen from inside the hospital.

Chicago Police said through a door being held open, a thief entered and exited the hospital in minutes – leaving with a duffel bag of patient property.

"I feel like that's an inside job," Douglas said.

It took almost a month and a half for the hospital to notify the family, and that included more bad news.

The hospital wrote: "Some personal health information belonging to your son, Justin Terrell McGhee, including name, date of birth, admission date, and physicians' names may have been improperly disclosed to an individual who is not employed by Sinai Health System."

"Once this happened, I realized that they're taking things from patients," Douglas said. "It's not a one off."

That is because months earlier, when Justin came to the same hospital for a procedure, he told his mother "that an expensive belt that he was wearing came up missing after he procedure was done - when he woke from anesthesia – and they basically brushed it off and told him to get out of the hospital."

The hospital blames its private security firm, G4S Security.

"G4S has taken responsibility for any reimbursement for those impacted, and any questions regarding the incident should be directed to G4S Security," the hospital said.

To date, Gwendolyn Douglas has seen no reimbursement – or even a phone call from the security company.

"I'm getting no answers from them. It seems like they're just brushing it under the rug," she said. "And I just want to do what right, because I feel that if it was me, he would do the same."

CBS 2 reached out to the security company Thursday night. They did not answer.

Douglas feels the hospital is shirking its responsibility by packing the buck to the private security company it selected.

On Friday night, neither the thieves who stole from Douglas' son, nor the gunman who pulled the trigger, had been arrested.

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