Eric Perteet: Piedmont Hospital Fake Doctor and Forgery Charges

Eric Perteet is the Georgia man arrested in May 2008 after spending roughly two months posing as a fake doctor at Piedmont Hospital in Atlanta. He was 27, lived in Conyers, and was charged with impersonating a physician and identity fraud. The arrest also exposed a marriage built on forged credentials, invented family tragedies, and a medical degree he never earned.¹

What He Did at Piedmont Hospital

For about six weeks, and by some accounts closer to two months, Perteet moved through Piedmont Hospital dressed head to toe in surgical scrubs bearing the facility’s logo. He spent time in waiting rooms, doctors’ lounges, the library, and the emergency room.²³

To make the act convincing, he allegedly took hospital property: a cellphone, a doctor’s on-call pager, an electronic door swipe card that would open secured areas, and a vial of drugs.¹ Piedmont later said its internal investigation found no evidence that Perteet had any contact with patients.⁴

How He Was Caught

An emergency room nurse noticed something off. The supposed doctor was sitting around reading magazines while nurses worked. The nurse flagged hospital security, a guard found Perteet in the ER wearing the hospital’s scrubs, and he was arrested on May 18, 2008.³¹

Hospital spokeswoman Diana Lewis told reporters, “It’s very clear he was here to hit on women.”³

The Marriage Built on the Same Lies

Perteet’s wife, Tammi McCreary, had been dropping him off at Piedmont, believing he worked there as a physician. She was 38 when they met at a party and married within a month, honeymooning in the Bahamas. He told her he was an electrical engineer who also held a medical degree, that he was divorced, and that his entire family had died in a car crash. None of it was true. Investigators found his family alive.¹²

“I thought I had the perfect marriage,” McCreary said. She only learned the truth after Perteet failed to come home the night of his arrest. Even from jail, he kept insisting to her that he was a real physician.¹⁵

A Prior Record and Forged Documents

The Piedmont arrest was not Perteet’s first contact with the criminal system. Investigators found a prior conviction for depositing bad checks. They also recovered fabricated medical school transcripts and forged death certificates, the latter apparently created to prop up his claim that family members had died.¹

The Charges and Georgia Law

Perteet was charged with impersonating a doctor and identity fraud.¹ Under Georgia law, falsely impersonating a medical practitioner or practicing medicine under a false name is a felony punishable by a fine of up to $5,000, imprisonment of two to five years, or both.⁶

As of late May 2008, he remained in jail and refused to admit any wrongdoing. The available reporting does not record a trial verdict, plea, or final sentence.¹

Where the Story Was Retold

McCreary’s account anchored the season two premiere of Investigation Discovery’s Who the (Bleep) Did I Marry?, which aired July 13, 2011. The episode followed her short marriage to a man she believed was an emergency room doctor and the arrest that unraveled it.⁵

1
ABC News. Men Allegedly Used ID Theft to Woo Women
2
Law.com. Police Say Man Posed as Doctor at Piedmont Hospital
3
UPI. Police Nab Adorable Fake Doctor
4
HealthLeaders Media. Police Say Man Posed as Doctor at Piedmont Hospital
5
PR Newswire. Investigation Discovery Unveils a New Season of Who the (Bleep) Did I Marry
6
Justia. Georgia Code Section 43-34-42