An employee is accused of stealing toys from Lehigh Valley Hospital's Cedar Crest campus and giving some of the items as Christmas gifts to his own kids, according to police.

Lehigh Valley Hospital's Cedar Crest campus in Salisbury Township. (Lehighvalleylive.com file photo)

Brian Stano, 45, of Lehighton, Pa., was in Lehigh County Jail on Friday in lieu of $1,000 bail after his arraignment on charges of of theft and receiving stolen property.

Salisbury Township police said a Lehigh Valley Health Network security employee was investigating the theft of "numerous" toys from the hospital and believed Stano was behind the crimes.

The Salisbury Township location houses the health network's children's hospital, including the pediatric intensive care unit.

Stano worked for LVHN the past 12 years, most recently in the engineering department, police said.

In an interview with police, Stano said on two separate occasions -- once in December and again Jan. 1 -- he stole Xbox gaming systems and other toys from a storage area in the hospital, police said. The toys were in a fenced in secured area, but it was open when Stano took the items, police said.

"He told me that money was tight and that he gave the Xbox and some Lego sets to his children for Christmas," an investigator wrote in an affidavit of probable cause.

Stano told officers he took a refrigerator to the cage, put the toys inside the fridge, then taped the doors shut and took the toys home, police said.

Lehigh Valley Health Network spokesman Brian Downs would only say Stano no longer worked for the health network.

Sarah Cassi may be reached at scassi@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow her on Twitter @SarahCassi. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.