A 46-year-old medical-equipment sales representative from Jupiter is facing felony charges after investigators say he posed as a vendor to slip into restricted surgical areas at two Palm Beach County hospitals and walk out with high-end surgical cameras worth tens of thousands of dollars. Justin Philip Sulish is accused of stealing more than $34,000 in Karl Storz 4K surgical cameras from West Boca Medical Center alone, part of a broader reported loss across two hospitals that sheriff's records put at more than $183,000.
According to WPEC, the alleged thefts at West Boca Medical Center occurred in March and May. On March 19, Sulish allegedly stole a surgical camera valued at about $20,366.50, then returned on May 8 and is accused of taking another Karl Storz camera and its container worth roughly $13,997.25. In the first case, he was charged with burglary of an occupied structure while unarmed, grand theft of emergency medical equipment, dealing in stolen property, and scheme to defraud involving between $20,000 and $50,000, since those charges carry the weight of second-degree felonies.
Investigators say surveillance video allegedly documented Sulish's movements inside the hospital, and two hospital employees identified him in photo lineups. In the May incident, he allegedly entered wearing blue scrubs and a bright pink surgical hair net, placed the camera inside his blue bin, and removed a hospital chrome container holding the device. Surveillance footage allegedly showed him pushing a dolly carrying a large blue bin and smaller gray container into a restricted processing area, using the setup to conceal the chrome camera container from a hospital cart.
A Second Hospital, a Similar Playbook
Sulish was arrested in May in Palm Beach Gardens after a separate investigation tied him to thefts at Palm Beach Gardens Medical Center. There, he allegedly entered through the main lobby and later accessed restricted surgical-equipment areas while wearing dark-blue Holy Cross scrubs, a mask, and hair covering, per the same account. He is accused of stealing a Universal NavLock surgical instrument tray worth about $14,878.50, while two other similar NavLock trays also went missing from the hospital — bringing the combined value of the three missing trays to about $44,635.50.
Sulish told detectives he was at Palm Beach Gardens Medical Center for a MicroPort delivery connected to a surgery, but hospital staff disputed that account, and according to the affidavit, the equipment he brought was incomplete for the procedure he described and no such surgery was scheduled. He allegedly did not follow the required vendor check-in process before entering the restricted areas. In the second case, he was charged with burglary of an occupied structure while unarmed, grand theft of emergency medical equipment, and defrauding to obtain property valued below $20,000, along with grand theft involving property valued between $10,000 and $20,000.
Tracing the Camera Through a Resale Pipeline
Records allegedly traced one stolen camera through medical-equipment businesses connected to Sulish, and the device later appeared for sale online through Virginia Surplus. According to the affidavit, Virginia Surplus told detectives it had purchased the equipment from Eighteen Medical LLC. FedEx surveillance allegedly showed Sulish shipping medical equipment out of Jupiter the day after his hospital visit, and one FedEx shipment was confirmed to contain the stolen camera.
Hospital staff discovered the second camera missing during an inventory audit on May 11, and nine similar cameras were reported missing from restricted hospital areas altogether, according to the report. Both West Boca Medical Center and Palm Beach Gardens Medical Center operate under the Palm Beach Health Network, a six-hospital regional system owned by Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare Corporation, meaning the alleged thefts hit two facilities within the same corporate umbrella months apart.
Why Hospital Equipment Is a Target
The cameras at the center of the case, Karl Storz 4K IMAGE1 S modular surgical camera systems, typically cost hospitals between $10,000 and $30,000 per unit when purchased new or refurbished, according to AA Medical Store. West Boca Medical Center is a 195-bed facility with a robotic surgery program and minimally invasive surgical suites that depend heavily on the kind of 4K visualization tools allegedly targeted in the thefts, per PracticeLink. Palm Beach Gardens Medical Center, meanwhile, is recognized nationally for its cardiovascular surgery programs, according to Healthgrades.
Missing mobile medical equipment is a broader problem for U.S. hospitals, with industry research published in 2023 estimating that 10% to 20% of a typical hospital's mobile medical assets are lost or stolen over their operational life, costing facilities millions of dollars annually, according to Chief Healthcare Executive. Standard vendor management protocols require outside sales representatives to maintain verified credentialing and complete formal check-ins before entering restricted operating room corridors or sterile processing departments — the exact procedure investigators say Sulish skipped.
Under Florida Statute § 812.014, grand theft of emergency medical equipment is treated as a distinct criminal charge, and second-degree felonies in Florida carry statutory penalties of up to 15 years in prison, 15 years of probation, and a $10,000 fine per count, according to Pumphrey Law. Sulish faces felony charges in both cases involving the Karl Storz 4K surgical cameras, and the allegations against him remain unproven pending the outcome of the criminal proceedings.
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