(Independent Mail) -- Brian Cape said his place on the heart transplant list may have been saved by a courier who drove to Anderson from Charleston on Wednesday night to replace a $4,200 box of medical supplies that was found on his neighbor's couch after a standoff with police.
The supplies needed to be refrigerated, so the ones found at his neighbor's home had spoiled by the time police ended a five-hour standoff Wednesday at the duplex on Shirlane Drive.
The neighbor, Charles Benjamin Raap, 36, has been charged with grand larceny of medical supplies, possession of methamphetamine and breach of peace. He remained in custody Thursday afternoon at the Anderson City Jail, with a $10,000 bond set for his release.
The standoff began around 7:30 a.m. Wednesday morning when Raap was video-chatting with a friend who became concerned during the conversation and called 911, reporting that Raap was holding a gun to his head.
Police closed part of U.S. 29 Bypass North around 9:30 a.m. as negotiators continued to try to contact Raap and the SWAT unit deployed. Nearby Nevitt Forest Elementary School was placed on lockdown. After no response for several hours, at about 12:30 p.m. officers used a ram to knock down the front door with a plan to toss a phone inside, but they saw Raap in the front room and took him into custody.
UPS records show that Cape's package was delivered Tuesday. Cape said he had just assumed it was late, which isn't unusual. The supplies include antibiotics and a saline solution Cape uses to maintain his left ventricle assist device, which helps to mechanically pump his heart. Cape would have run out of the supplies on Thursday morning without the special delivery.
"I feel violated, like he didn't realize or didn't care," Cape said.
If he misses more than one or two of his home treatments, he could lose his spot on the transplant list and the infection around the implant could accelerate and threaten his life, Cape said.
"My life depends on this medication," he said. "I could have easily have died."
Cape said Raap apologized to him at a Thursday morning bond hearing, but it wasn't enough.
"He said he was sorry, but he was just sorry he got caught," Cape said.
