A 40-year-old man was arrested on charges of burglary for allegedly stealing a sample collected from a COVID-19 suspect for testing from a hospital in the city of Davis in California.

On Saturday, at around 1:35 pm, Davis Police received a call from Sutter Davis Hospital complaining that a man allegedly sneaked into the medical facility and stole a sample that was to be tested for the COVID-19 infection. The accused escaped on a bicycle.

At around 6:15 pm on the same day, the Davis Police department received another call. The person on the line said that a sealed COVID-19 sample was located in a shopping cart at CVS Pharmacy in Marketplace Shopping Centre.

The officials retrieved the sample and handed it over to the Sutter Davis Hospital. The hospital employees confirmed that it sample’s packing was secure and it had not been tampered with.

The police swung into action and launched a manhunt to arrest the alleged burglar. The hospital administration was able to provide a photograph of the accused and the police had put out social media posts urging people to help in locating him.

Within 24 hours, the accused, identified as Shaun Lamar Moore, was taken into custody at 11:50 am on Sunday.

At around 11:42 am, Moore was spotted riding a bicycle by a patrolling cop who was actively looking for him. Subsequently, he was stopped and arrested on Cowell Boulevard and Research Park Drive. The officials lodged him in the Yolo County Jail.

According to the post on Davis Police Department’s official Facebook handle, the investigating officials are familiar with the accused and they are probing whether his mental health conditions played any role in the incident.

The officials do not believe that Moore stole the sample with the intention to harm himself or anyone else.