Sheriff's deputies say 29-year-old Crystal Cook looked like a nurse when she was arrested outside Santa Clara Valley Medical Center. Trouble is she's not.
"She was wearing scrubs... all the way down to the stethoscope and fake ID card," said Kurtis Stenderup from the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Department.
That fake ID badge did not have a security key card, but it was enough for police to charge her with impersonating a nurse. Hospital staff said no patients were ever in danger.
"We don't believe she ever got to the patient care area. Nurses on every floor would know who is supposed to be working there and they would not have allowed somebody who wasn't supposed to be there to just show up. It's impossible," said Joy Alexiou, the hospital spokesperson.
A warning bulletin was issued to hospital staff about Cook after police say she bragged on her Facebook page about working at Valley Medical Center and on board the medical helicopter, CALSTAR. She also claimed to have watched a pediatric heart transplant at the hospital.
"She totally made that up. We don't do them here. We actually send those cases to Stanford, so it's hard to tell what the motivation is for somebody who's just making up stories," said Alexiou.
Cook told ABC7 News by phone she meant no harm, but when I asked her why she wouldn't say.
The Sheriff's Department is reviewing surveillance tape and asking other hospitals to call them if they've seen this fake nurse on duty.
