JUNE 5, 2025 |
Photo – eBay logo – Courtesy eBay
A Rawlins man has pled guilty to stealing $63,000 worth of printer toner from Memorial Hospital of Carbon County.
On October 18th, 2024, Carbon County Prosecuting Attorney Sarah Chavez-Harkins charged 45-year-old Justin David Schwink with theft. Schwink pled guilty to the charge on May 6th of this year. He is awaiting sentencing in Carbon County District Court on August 4th.
Court documents show that Schwink, while serving as an outside IT Technician for Memorial Hospital of Carbon County, used his position to purchase tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of office supplies. Schwink is accused of later selling the items on eBay, the online auction website.
Last April, Rawlins Police Lieutenant Daria Hooper was informed that Memorial Hospital Human Resource Director Amy Hickman had reported the theft of $63,000 worth of printer toner. Investigators met with Hickman who said the hospital’s printer supply company, Ricoh USA, had flagged the facility’s account after noticing a spike in toner cartridge orders.
In late 2023, Ricoh conducted an internal investigation and found that the company had not made an error in its tracking history regarding the purchases. In January of 2024, representatives from the printer supply company contacted Memorial Hospital administrators to explain the situation, informing staff that the hospital’s account had been flagged as fraudulent. Court documents state that then-Interim Chief Financial Officer Scott Miller immediately suspected that the hospital’s IT technician, Schwink, was involved.
Records provided by Ricoh USA showed 333 unaccounted printer toner cartridges, totaling $63,469.83 had been ordered by the hospital. The toner was for a seldom-used printer installed in the hospital’s mail room.
On May 7th of 2024, Rawlins police met with Schwink. When questioned, the suspect blamed mismanagement at the printer supply company for the missing toner. Schwink also told investigators that roughly 100 printer cartridges had been thrown away by his boss, Matt Brooke. The suspect denied both taking and selling the toner cartridges.
The investigation continued. Rawlins Police obtained a copy of Schwink’s bank records which showed deposits from the online auction site, eBay.
Officers then searched the suspect’s home and found a “large amount of electronics” in the basement, including printer toner cartridges. A search of Schwink’s camper trailer revealed a receipt for the sale of four Ricoh-branded printers on eBay.
Two days after the interview, Schwink’s wife, Dana, provided police with a receipt for toner cartridges her husband had purchased in the past. The invoice, from a supposed flea market seller called ‘Junk in the Trunk’, showed that Schwink had paid $2,212 in cash for 160 toner cartridges for three different printers.
Rawlins police called the number on the receipt and spoke to a man who identified himself as John Ligma. The man who referred to himself as Ligma confirmed that he was a flea market seller, but that he had no recollection of selling ink cartridges to Schwink.
Investigators conducted a search for the seller’s driver’s license but found no records. Growing suspicious, the officer requested a copy from the flea market operator, the man who called himself Mr. Ligma. The seller refused to provide any information, or any other paperwork associated with his business.
A search through public and private property records also yielded no information about a John Ligma.
A little side-note here provides insight into the mentality at work in this scam. The word “ligma” gained popularity online as a sophomoric joke in 2018 because it sounds like the phrase “lick my.” When someone unfamiliar with the term “ligma” inquires “What’s ligma?”, the jokester would respond obscenely, such as “Ligma fill-in-the-blank with a crude reference to a body part,” such as “my butt.”
Police continued to investigate and were able to use the seller’s phone number to identify the so-called “Ligma” as 39-year-old Patrick Atencio, of Casper, Wyoming. Investigators tracked Atencio to Hanna.
Meanwhile, eBay provided police with Schwink’s records, showing that the suspect had sold 92 toner cartridges that matched the ones missing from Memorial Hospital of Carbon County.
Police determined that Schwink sold various other Ricoh-branded items on his eBay storefront, many of which were also reported missing from the hospital.
As the investigation continued, Lieutenant Lehr obtained copies of text messages between Schwink’s wife, Dana, and the supposed owner of ‘Junk in the Trunk’, now known to be Patrick Atencio. The messages appear to show an attempt between Schwink’s wife and Atencio to throw police off her husband’s trail with fake receipts for the toner cartridges.
Police failed to make physical contact with Atencio and calls to his phone began going straight to voice mail.
By this time, the Rawlins Police had all the evidence they needed and arrested Schwink last October for stealing over $63,000 worth of printer supplies from Memorial Hospital of Carbon County.
On May 6th, the Defendant pled guilty to theft in Carbon County District Court. A sentencing hearing has been scheduled for August 4th. If given the maximum sentence, Schwink could face up to ten years in prison and a fine of $10,000.
