A teenager pretended to be a doctor at a Florida hospital for a month before he was caught this week, and it looks like he might get away with it.
Donning a white lab coat and stethoscope, the unnamed male teenager walked around St. Mary's Medical Center for weeks, according to an incident report obtained by the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. Security guards noticed him but apparently thought he was a doctor. It wasn't until a patient told staff at the hospital's OB/GYN office about a doctor in the exam room that looked like "a child" when he was busted.
West Palm Beach police were alerted to the alleged impostor on Tuesday. Both the hospital and police agreed not to press charges against the teen, whose mother said is under the care of a doctor for an undiagnosed illness.
Security footage shows the boy entering the hospital lobby from the parking lot as well as a car outside with a white lab coat on a hanger. His lab coat had the hospital's logo along with "anesthesiology" stitched on the front, the report said.
Two security guards said he was known as a doctor at the hospital and saw him walking around for days, entering secured areas in the medical center, according to the Sun-Sentinel. An OB/GYN said he never noticed the boy before, but later told investigators he found a note from the boy asking if he could "shadow" him, according to the report.
After he was busted the teen told police he had been a doctor for "years." He said his family could confirm his profession, the newspaper reported.
The teenager's name and age have not been released. Though he is under a doctor's care he refuses to take medication, his mother told police.
