Eighty N95 respirator masks meant to protect staffers at a makeshift hospital for recovering coronavirus patients in New Orleans’ Ernest N. Morial Convention Center have been returned to the facility after authorities said a high-ranking official there allegedly stole them last week.

Vernon Giscombe, described in court records as the director of public safety at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, remained in jail Tuesday afternoon, unable to make $2,500 bail four days after his arrest.

Authorities booked Giscombe with one count of malfeasance in office over the weekend.

A spokesman for Louisiana State Police — which made the arrest — said investigators are not sure what Giscombe may have intended to do with the much-in-demand masks, which some people elsewhere have been caught trying to sell at inflated prices.

+5 80 N95 masks stolen from New Orleans hospital site; convention center official booked The public safety director at New Orleans’ Ernest N. Morial Convention Center — where officials are erecting a makeshift hospital for patients…

Louisiana Department of Public Safety Officer Donald Furca saw a woman emerge from the back of the state-owned Convention Center and place two boxes in Giscombe’s car about 11:20 p.m. Friday, authorities said. Furca stopped the car and learned that the woman and Giscombe, who was in the driver’s seat, worked for the Convention Center’s public safety department.

The pair allegedly told Furca that Giscombe had instructed the woman to bring the boxes — which contained a total of 40 N95 masks — from a manager’s office to his car. The masks were equipment for medical workers staffing a 1,000-bed field hospital built inside the Convention Center, said Clayton Williams, a spokesman for the facility.

During further questioning, Giscombe admitted that he had gotten a second employee earlier in the day to bring him another two boxes containing a total of 40 masks, State Police alleged. Troopers said they recovered those masks at Giscombe’s home after he permitted them to search it, and they jailed him.

A Convention Center spokesman said Giscombe has been suspended from his post indefinitely while the facility’s directors conduct an internal investigation.

Neither of Giscombe’s subordinates were arrested because they were following their boss’ orders, State Police said.

Orleans Parish Magistrate Court Commissioner Brigid Collins, who set Giscombe’s bail, also ordered that the masks be returned to the makeshift hospital rather than be stored in evidence.

N95 masks filter out about 95% of liquid and airborne particles and are recommended for frontline health care workers who expect to encounter particularly infectious diseases.

Hospitals have reported a shortage of the masks as COVID-19 has spread, though the federal government said it recently sent more than 200,000 N95 masks to Louisiana.

If convicted of malfeasance, Giscombe could face a maximum of five years in prison as well as up to a $5,000 fine.