For more than two years, Michael Marburger worked as a salesman of colonoscopes for Olympus Inc.

That meant when he left that job in February 2004, he knew where the hospitals stored the expensive scopes, and he knew how much money could be made off of them in the refurbished medical equipment business.

So for two more years, Mr. Marburger traveled to 22 different hospitals in six states and stole their colonoscopes.

In all, he took 66 scopes, valued at slightly more than $1.5 million. And he netted nearly $500,000 by selling them to companies in New Hampshire, Florida and Illinois.

Yesterday, Mr. Marburger pleaded guilty to his crime in federal court. He will be sentenced Aug. 3.

According to Assistant U.S. Attorney Scott Brady, Mr. Marburger, 36, formerly of Fox Chapel, did surveillance on the hospitals to find out how tight security was before he decided to steal from them.

"He avoided big hospitals because of increased security they had," he said.

Mr. Marburger would enter the hospitals wearing his Olympus sales shirt, business clothing or hospital scrubs. He'd go directly to where the equipment was kept, disconnect it, stick it in a bag and walk out of the hospital with it, Mr. Brady said.

Federal officials caught on to the problem in March 2006, when investigators received a call about stolen scopes from police in State College.

Eventually, the FBI sent out a broadcast to all local and federal agencies to inquire about stolen colonoscopes.

Locally, they learned that UPMC McKeesport was a victim, as were West Penn Hospital, UPMC St. Margaret, Armstrong Regional Hospital in Kittanning, VA Medical Center in Pittsburgh, Butler Memorial Hospital and The Medical Center, Beaver.

All of the stolen equipment had original serial numbers in place -- otherwise the scopes can't be legally resold -- and was tracked down through sales receipts and bank records.

Insurance companies paid the hospitals for the losses, but, Mr. Brady told Chief U.S. District Judge Donetta Ambrose, none of the money was recovered from Mr. Marburger.

"That's a lot of money to get rid of in a couple years," she said. "What happened to the money?"

"I, unfortunately, gambled most of it," Mr. Marburger answered.

Though he only pleaded guilty to one count, Mr. Marburger will accept responsibility for the other 65 charges against him for the purpose of sentencing.