Police Arrest Doctor in Theft of Equipment : Crime: Clinic patients watch as suspect is taken in custody on warrant stemming from burglaries at 3 doctors’ offices.

As patients stared, police arrested a doctor in his office Monday afternoon in connection with the theft of thousands of dollars worth of equipment from a Tustin medical office.

Tustin police and state Medical Board investigators arrested George Walter Korol, 39, of Yorba Linda on a warrant issued two weeks ago.

The Superior Court warrant, stemming from burglaries nearly a year ago in three different doctors’ offices, accused Korol of burglary, grand theft and filing a false police report, said Jim Kovash, a senior Medical Board investigator who participated in the unusual arrest.

Police said X-ray equipment, phones, stress monitors, scales and various other medical and office equipment items were discovered stolen last Oct. 26 from medical offices at 17541 Irvine Blvd., where Korol worked as a general practitioner.

Two days later, Korol filed a burglary report with Tustin police, claiming that items were taken from his office during the burglaries.

But police, acting on a tip about the theft, searched a Santa Ana storage facility Oct. 31 about two miles from the burglarized medical offices. At the South Grand Avenue storage area they located the stolen merchandise in a container which Korol was renting, investigators said.

Police and Medical Board investigators searched unsuccessfully for Korol after locating the stolen equipment.

But authorities got a break in the case Monday when they heard from other doctors that Korol was practicing in Costa Mesa at the Harvard Family Medical Clinic on Baker Street.

Carrying an arrest warrant, authorities arrested Korol without incident about 2:30 p.m., Kovash said. “There were a lot of surprised patients,” the investigator said.

Investigators said they do not know why Korol allegedly stole the items or what he planned to do with them.

The state Medical Board is requesting a hearing before a state administrative judge, Kovash said, in a legal effort to strip the doctor of his medical license.

Bail for Korol was originally set at $100,000, Kovash said. But in return for a promise to appear in Santa Ana Municipal Court on Wednesday, Korol was allowed to leave on his own recognizance, according to authorities at the Orange County Jail.

Harvard Family Medical Clinic officials and Korol could not be reached for comment.