2 men are charged in U. hospital data theft

The two men who police say had the stolen billing records of more than 1.5 million University of Utah Hospital and Clinics patients have been charged in 3rd District Court.

Shadd Dean Hartmann, 37, and Thomas Howard Anderson, 52, have each been charged with theft by receiving stolen property, a second-degree felony, and unlawful possession of another's identification documents, a third-degree felony.

Early June 2, the tapes were stolen after a courier for Perpetual Storage Inc. left the tapes inside his personal automobile overnight instead of taking the tapes to the company's secure vault in Little Cottonwood Canyon.

The tapes were recovered from Hartmann and Howard on July 1, police said. Police do not believe Hartmann or Howard stole the tapes from the car, but officials have not said how the men came into possession of the records.

The two men knew the box and the tapes were the subjects of a "very high-publicity theft," according to charges filed Monday. Salt Lake County sheriff's officials have said, however, they do not believe the data on the tapes was accessed.