NEW YORK CORRECTION ON TYPE OF COMPUTER STOLEN FROM MOUNT SINAI HOSPIAL Newsday.com: Man arrested in theft of computer from WTC health monitoring programMan arrested in theft of computer from WTC health monitoring program

September 29, 2005, 11:37 AM EDT


police and firefighters; CORRECTS type of computer, desktop STED laptop

NEW YORK (AP) _ Police on Thursday arrested a suspect in the theft of a desktop computer containing data for a program monitoring the health of police, firefighters and other people exposed to dust after the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center.

The computer was taken from an office at Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan at about 7 p.m. on July 10. It contained Social Security numbers, dates of birth and some test results from participants in the program, police said.

Police identified the suspect as Malcolm Mitchell, 27, of the Bronx, and described him as a disgruntled employee who was doing work as a painter for a contractor at the hospital.

Mitchell surrendered at a police station at about 12:30 a.m. Thursday; charges were pending. The computer had not been recovered.

Participants' names were not on the computer, but hospital officials were concerned that the other information could be used for identity theft and sent a letter telling them what happened and urging them to do a credit check, police said.

The hospital said in the letter that it had no reason to conclude that any of the information has been accessed but that it was notifying participants as a precaution. A Mount Sinai spokeswoman did not return a page late Wednesday.

Several federally funded programs have been monitoring the health of workers and others who were exposed to dust from ground zero.