ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. — A man has been charged for posing as a St. Louis County health inspector and “testing” people for COVID-19 to gain their personal information.
On Thursday, 27-year-old Eddie Jameson was charged with false impersonation and five counts of identity theft, which are both Class B misdemeanors.
According to the probable cause statement, Jameson went to a QuikTrip on Page Avenue and posed as a health inspector with the St. Louis County Health Department. He said he was there to conduct COVID-19 tests on store employees to determine if restrictions could be lifted.
Jameson asked employees to fill out a form with their names, dates of birth, driver’s license numbers, addresses and phone numbers. He then administered nasal swabs to the employees.
He obtained information from five employees, according to the statement.
He also went to a market on West Florissant Avenue and attempted the same thing, but those employees refused to be tested and got his license plate number.
A couple days later, Jameson returned to the QuikTrip to tell the employees their test results would be available the next day. While he was there, police arrived and arrested him.
He told police he didn’t pretend to be a county health inspector but said he did do the testing. He said he was working for an organization called Community Wellness America, which provides testing for employees.
Jameson gave police the name of his supervisor who confirmed he worked for the organization. The supervisor said he was not supposed to be administering tests but rather he was to give the tests to the employees to use themselves.
Jameson admitted to police that he didn’t receive training in administering a nasal swab and never performed one before he went to the QuikTrip.
He was supposed to receive $20 for every test given out but he told police he needed money to “pay his apartment lease and was trying to obtain the tests in order to get money,” according to the statement.
Jameson could face up to six months in jail, a $1,000 fine or both.