Medical machine containing flesh-eating bacteria stolen from Orlando lab

Whoever stole some discarded equipment from outside a pathology lab may have gotten more than he or she bargained for: Orlando police say the equipment, worth about $500,000, is contaminated with a substance that could eat away at human skin.

A pickup hauling a trailer pulled up to Florida Hospital Center for Diagnostic Pathology earlier this month and took the equipment from an enclosed area near a large garbage bin, police said. Officers said they think the thief or thieves wanted the equipment for its value at a recycling center.

This story was originally published May 16, 2012 at 7:36 AM with the headline "Medical machine containing flesh-eating bacteria stolen from Orlando lab."