A man was arrested in Spartanburg County, South Carolina, after lying about having coronavirus in a fake doctor’s note in an attempt to get two weeks of paid vacation.
As the Spartanburg County Police confirmed, 31-year-old Jeffrey Travis Long has been charged with forgery and a breach of peace after providing his bosses at Sitel Corporation with a fake doctor’s note.
“You were seen at Primary Care 1 here at the CGVAMC on 03/13/2020 with a positive test for the COVID-19 virus. You may return to work on 03/27/2020 following retesting on 3/27/2020,” the forged document that Long’s bosses received read.
Following the submission of the letter, the company was forced to temporarily close the entire building and sanitize the workspace, MailOnline reported.
As the police added, the authorities also got worried that Long exposed children to the disease after it came to light that he visited his kids’ school.
“I don’t know the dollar number it cost to disinfect their whole entire building, but it was a large number. It wasn’t a hundred bucks. It was more than that,” Chuck Wright, the Spartanburg County Sheriff, said in an interview with AP.
“It seems to me like the fella just wanted a two-week, paid vacation. You can’t do this to people.”
According to the sheriff, the staff at the hospital Long alleged to have visited confirmed that the note was fake and lacked an official stamp.
Following the arrest, Sitel Corporation released a statement and confirmed to WSPA-TV that one of their employees made fraudulent claims about having COVID-19.
“Based on these fraudulent claims, the Spartanburg Sheriff’s Office has issued an arrest warrant for this individual. The individual is no longer employed at Sitel,” part of the statement provided to WSPA-TV read.
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Replaced!