Photo: Dr. Elizabeth Hooper
Ventura County – Perhaps it’s the ever-increasing paperwork load faced by today’s doctors or the difficulty in dealing with medial insurance providers that could possibly drive a practicing physician into the world of criminal conspiracy and grand theft. Or maybe it’s just that stealing stuff from retail chain stores just provides enough of a thrill to bring a little excitement back into a sluggish marriage.
Whatever the motivation, the April 26th arrests of Thousand Oaks residents 43-year-old Elizabeth Hooper, M.D. and her 52-year-old musician husband David Hooper is a clear indication that a proclivity for criminal behavior is no respecter of educational level or professional position within the community.
David Hooper
According to Ventura County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Sgt. Robert Davidson, the married couple was arrested pursuant to an ongoing investigation into several theft reports from loss prevention personnel at “various Target department stores.”
Investigation into these inventory losses pointed to “organized retail theft” taking place since January 2018, wherein Mr. & Mrs. Hooper worked together “by fraudulently manufacturing bar codes and affixing them to items of greater value” and then using Target Stores’ self-checkout facilities “to surreptitiously pay for the items with the fraudulent bar codes.”
Their tactic worked well enough to allow the Hoopers to remove more than $2300 of merchandise from Target stores in Thousand Oaks, Westlake Village, and Woodland Hills.
Once the Hoopers were identified, on April 26th detectives arrived at the Hooper home with search warrant in hand, whereupon they “located evidence of the fraudulent bar code manufacturing as well as several items of stolen merchandise.”
Dr. Hooper, a practicing pediatrician in the local community, was taken into custody at that time and transported to Ventura County Jail. It apparently took four more days for her husband to realize that the jig was truly up, and he arrived at the Thousand Oaks Police Department on April 30th to meet with detectives “regarding the investigation.”
He was soon in custody and transported to Ventura County Jail. Both Hoopers were booked on charges of Grand Theft and Criminal Conspiracy, with their bail set at $20,000 each.
Photos: Courtesy Ventura County Jail Booking
