Former doctor accused of posing as employee at Irvine hospital

Irvine police on Sunday arrested a former doctor who they say used a wig and scrubs to pose as an employee at a hospital so he could steal valuable medical equipment.

Authorities say Roy Chiwing Lung, a 48-year-old Aliso Viejo resident, went into the Kaiser Hospital in Irvine around 4:40 a.m. wearing the disguise and took surgical supplies worth $25,000.

A hospital employee noticed what was going on and contacted security, and Lung was detained until police arrived to arrest him, Irvine police spokeswoman Farrah Emami said.

Lung has been caught stealing from Southern California hospitals before, according to the state medical board, which revoked his physician’s license in 2009.

In 2004, Lung took two computers and other items from Long Beach Memorial Hospital, where he “used blue scrubs and a white doctor’s coat to blend in,” according to medical board documents.

He pleaded no contest later that year to grand theft, possession of stolen property and two counts of burglary, the medical board said.

In 2008, an Orange Coast Memorial Medical Center employee confronted Lung in a private doctor’s lounge at the Fountain Valley facility, where Lung was eating and using a computer, according to state records.

When two police officers arrived, Lung allegedly told them he’d worked at the hospital 10 years ago and had been using the hospital’s showers and sleeping rooms for years.

“[Lung] explained that he stopped at Long Beach Memorial and Orange Coast MMC because they were on his way home and he was tired,” the medical board wrote. “He felt that he was entitled to use the facilities and supplies because he was a doctor.”

Lung said he’d identify himself as “Dr. Lin” or “Dr. Lee” when staffers asked who he was, according to authorities.

“[Lung] also admitted that he had taken two to six boxes of sutures from Orange Coast MMC, which he used in other facilities or sold,” according to medical board documents.

In a later board hearing, Lung denied stealing anything, but officials deemed his testimony unreliable and suspended him.

State officials revoked Lung’s license after he continued practicing medicine during his suspension, according to the board.

Police say that when they arrested Lung on Sunday, he had a duffel bag full of burglary tools and keys like the ones carried by hospital employees.

Officers also searched his car and found more wigs, keys and scrubs from other nearby hospitals, Emami said.

Irvine police have asked that people who think they are victims of Lung contact Det. Gavin Hudson at (949) 724-7168.