Excuse me? That's my foot — even if it's not still attached

Former paramedic sued for swiping appendage from scene of crash

A man who lost his foot and part of his leg in a 2008 crash on I-95 in St. Lucie County, Fla., is suing a paramedic who swiped the foot from the crash scene. Cynthia "Cindy" Economou, a former St. Lucie County Fire District firefighter-paramedic, has admitted taking Karl Lambert's foot after the Sept. 19, 2008, crash but says she took it to train her body recovery dog, according to tcpalm.com.

Economou was sentenced to six months probation in 2009 for second-degree petit theft in the foot swipe, though she told the court at the time that when she found the foot trapped in the wreckage an hour after Lambert was airlifted from the scene, it was unusable.

"It was an unrecognizable mass of flesh," Economou said. "It wasn't a clean cut. You couldn't even recognize it as a foot.... If I had thought it was somehow reattachable and usable, I would have gone to my commander."

Economou, who left the department after the incident, said she didn't mean to cause Lambert any pain.

The lawsuit, filed last week, seeks unspecified damages.

"[Economou's act was] outrageous and went beyond the bounds of decency, ... was odious and utterly intolerable in a civilized society," the lawsuit reads.


NBC