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Woman Hospitalized after Passing Out in Myrtle Avenue Duane Reade Bathroom

By Jesse Lent | September 6, 2012 8:26pm
The Duane Reade on Myrtle and Nostrand avenues in Brooklyn where a woman allegedly overdosed.
The Duane Reade on Myrtle and Nostrand avenues in Brooklyn where a woman allegedly overdosed.
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Photo by Jesse Lent

BEDFORD-STUYVESANT —  A woman was hospitalized after passing out in a bathroom of a Duane Reade in Bedford-Stuyvesant Thursday, witnesses and fire officials said.

The unidentified woman, believed to be in her 20s, entered the Duane Reade on Myrtle and Nostrand avenues just before 3 p.m. with a man and asked to use the bathroom, said a security guard at the store, who asked to remain anonymous.

Even though it is against store policy, employees allowed her access to the bathroom, the guard explained. But when the woman didn’t return after several minutes, her companion got nervous.

"He said 'She went to use the bathroom and never came back,’” the guard recounted. “So we called the FDNY.”

When the fire department arrived at the scene, they broke down the bathroom door, and found the woman unconscious, the guard said.

FDNY officials confirmed they took a woman to Woodhull Hospital from that location about 2:55 p.m. in an "unknown condition."

After emergency personnel took the woman to the hospital, the guard said he checked the bathroom and found a hypodermic needle in the trashcan. He believed she may have overdosed.

“The employees were trying to do the right thing by letting the woman use the bathroom,” he said. “It turns out she was scamming the store.”

Police did not immediately have information on the incident.

Other store employees declined to comment.