LAWRENCE — Police are investigating the unusual theft of expensive eye exam equipment from a local clinic, and are trying to determine if it is linked to similar crimes in Boston, Burlington and Stoneham.
The Tallman Eye Associates clinic at 360 Merrimack St. reported that more than $14,000 in equipment was stolen from examination rooms in February. All of the items are easy to conceal.
Monday, clinic staff members told Officer George Wood that similar thefts had been reported by Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, Lahey Clinic in Burlington, and the Horsley Eye Institute in Stoneham.
Margie Coloian, spokeswoman for Lahey Clinic in Burlington, confirmed a theft had occurred there last week.
"Four pieces of optical equipment were taken, and we are working with the Burlington police to try to resolve the matter," Coloian said last night.
A worker at the Merrimack Street clinic told Wood that three Reichert TONO-Pen XL devices valued at a total of $8,934; two HAAG-STREIT R-900 tonometers valued at $3,280, and four ocular lenses used in eye examinations valued at $900 were taken sometime during the day on Feb. 24 or 25, when the clinic was open for business.
The equipment was taken from two examination rooms, which are used only twice a week, police said.
Due to privacy laws, no surveillance video cameras are permitted in the examination rooms, police said.
The tonometers are used to measure pressure in the eyeball.
The Reichert TONO-Pen XL is a device the size of a large ballpoint pen, and the HAAG-STREIT R-900 tonometers are made to be mounted on, and used with, a microscope during eye examinations, according to information found on the Internet.
The devices could easily be concealed because of their size.
Police Chief John Romero said yesterday the clinic was open for business when the theft occurred.
"I think it is someone who knows what they want," Romero said. "It has some value on the open market and that's why they target it."
Romero said that given the nature of the equipment that was taken, police did not believe it was a crime of opportunity.
"They knew what they wanted and went in and got it," he said.
Romero said he did not expect the stolen equipment to be sold on the streets.
"It will probably end up somewhere where there is a market for it," he said.
Kelly Lawman, spokeswoman for Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center said last night she was unable to confirm reports of equipment thefts there.
