In situations like this you're lucky if they don't steal your identity.

Yeah, no surprise. I had many things stolen from my home, including a digital camera when I was in the hospital and Visiting Homemakers came to my house.

Doesn't surprise me that this happened. I wonder how many other people are missing things?

Death bed theft was final indignity for man's downtown Jersey City family

Monday, May 12, 2008
By KEN THORBOURNE
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

The distance between Monserrate Gierbolini's third-floor walk-up apartment on Fifth Street in Jersey City and the Jersey City Medical Center is 13 blocks, a little more than half a mile.

But when it came to the death of her estranged husband Luis Gierbolini on Dec. 3, the distance seemed far greater.

Monserrate Gierbolini, and her daughter Shirley, never received official word that 62-year-old Luis Gierbolini passed away from a heart attack at the hospital until April 8, even though Shirley Gierbolini said she phoned the hospital one or two days after her father died to make inquiries.

And when an investigator with the county surrogate's office finally gave Luis's wife of 40 years and 35-year-old daughter the news, it came with an added indignity: The items Luis had on him when he died - $600 cash, a ring, a wood bracelet, a silver pocket knife, and various pieces of identification - had allegedly been stolen by two former hospital security guards who are about to stand trial for theft.

Separated from Luis for 20 years, Monserrate says they still had a "deep affection" for each other and that's why they never divorced. The delay on the part of the hospital in contacting her and her daughter amounts to "negligence," she said. "At least if they sent somebody to where he lived they could have found us more quickly," Monserrate said.

Shirley Gierbolini, 35, feels cheated out of giving her father a proper burial.

"The body was so decomposed we had to have him cremated," Shirley said. "I couldn't even give him a proper funeral or touch him. They (hospital workers) recommended to me I not see it (Luis's body)."

Hospital officials said on Friday they made "substantial attempts" to notify the next of kin when Luis died.

"In addition, Jersey City Medical Center employees spoke to the patient's neighbors, but no one was able to provide information about relatives," hospital officials said. The hospital also offered on Friday to reimburse the Gierbolinis for Luis' belongings.

Records show the search for next of kin was turned over to the county surrogate's office in February. Through Luis's landlord, the county investigator was able to contact a friend of Luis, a hot dog vendor on Newark Avenue, who in turn put the investigator in touch with Monserrate's brother, the Gierbolinis said.

The Gierbolinis acknowledge the hospital was never given their names or phone numbers as contacts.

According to hospital records, Luis, a diabetes patient at the hospital since 2003, gave his landlord's name as a contact. But he listed his own phone number next to the landlord's name. Records show that on Dec. 3, hospital workers phoned his apartment, and made a note that no one answered.

Guillermo Hernandez, Luis's landlord, described Luis, a former garment worker surviving on disability payments, as a loner who had cut ties with his family. "We asked him who to contact in case of emergency. He (Luis) said he didn't want anyone to know he got sick," Hernandez said.

Monserrate and Shirley said they would run into Luis on the street, talking to his friend, the hot dog vendor.

"He (Luis) would always give me a kiss and say be careful," Shirley said. "I would say to him in Spanish, 'Bendici?n papi,' 'Bless you daddy.'"

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SICKOS' STOLE FROM HOSPITAL'S PATIENTS

Bust guards after probe by JCMC
Monday, May 12, 2008

Two former security guards at the Jersey City Medical Center go on trial later this month for allegedly stealing cash and other valuables from patients worth $4,800, according to hospital and law enforcement officials.

Jersey City residents Charles C. Wilson, 30, of Graham Street, and Mark Beaufort, 36, of Boyd Street, have been charged with conspiracy to commit theft by unlawful taking, and conspiracy to commit theft by failure to make proper disposition with property received - third-degree crimes that carry a maximum of five years in state prison, said Hudson County Assistant Prosecutor Matthew Troiano.

These charges are the result of investigations conducted by the Jersey City Medical Center and the Jersey City Police Department that began in December and concluded in early January, Troiano said.

Neither the two former security guards, who are out on bail, nor their attorneys, could be reached to comment.

Their trial begins May 22, officials said.

Shirley Gierbolini recently learned the former security guards allegedly stole $600 from her deceased father, along with a ring, a wood bracelet, and a silver pocket knife.

"They looked at him like he was nothing," Gierbolini said about the former guards. "It's a lack of respect for the dead."

In a statement, hospital officials said they began an internal investigation when they realized the wallet of Luis Gierbolini, Shirley's father, was missing. "The hospital filed charges against two individuals and terminated their employment," according to the statement.

KEN THORBOURNE