Ambulance Stolen

[UnkiEMT]

An employee sleeping in an ambulance had a rude awakening when a man and woman jumped in the vehicle and took off with the employee in the back, leading police on a 50-mile chase to Edgewood and back to Albuquerque before they were caught, according to the Albuquerque Police Department.

Police say the Superior Ambulance Services employee was asleep around 3 a.m. Saturday in the ambulance parked at the Lovelace Medical Center near Martin Luther King Jr. and Broadway when 41-year-old Mike Neal Schildt and 38-year-old Alisa Quam started driving the ambulance east on Central Avenue.

Police found the vehicle near Pennsylvania and Central, [ed note: about 5 miles] where it slowed down and the employee was able to jump out. He was not injured in the incident, and police had not released his identity Saturday night.

The ambulance then continued onto Interstate 40 eastbound with police in pursuit.

The driver left the freeway at the Edgewood exit [ed note: about 30 miles.] and turned around onto westbound I-40, heading back into the city.

Officers and Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office deputies put down spike belts, deflating the ambulance’s tires, and it stopped on I-40 over Tramway.

Schildt and Quam were arrested and charged with aggravated eluding, unlawful taking of a motor vehicle and kidnapping, and both were on a no-bond hold Saturday night. Both have had many previous run-ins with the law, according to Metro Court records.

APD spokesman Simon Drobik said it’s unclear if the pair stole the ambulance to try to get somewhere or to possibly steal narcotics from the vehicle – he said he didn’t know their motive.

“Never in 15 years of work have I seen an ambulance stolen,” Drobik said. “Buses, school buses, but never an ambulance.”

Source: http://www.abqjournal.com/350486/news/50mile-chase-in-stolen-ambulance-2.html

I dunno about anyone else, but that's an incident report I'd hate to write.

 

[LACoGurneyjockey]

Where was his partner? Maybe, just maybe, we can lock our ambulances that we so love to leave running...

 

[Handsome Robb]

Where was his partner? Maybe, just maybe, we can lock our ambulances that we so love to leave running...

Inside taking a leak? On their phone outside the unit? Who knows. We're not required to sit in our ambulances, I rarely do if I can avoid it. Made some friends actually sitting inside certain cafés and coffee shops. I also work in a 24/7 city though. There's always business open and people around no matter what time it is.

We lock our units, at least I always do, because things get stolen out of them all the time. Only had one that I know of that actually stole the entire unit. They totaled that one too. Unfortunately even if we lock them it's pretty common knowledge throughout the community where the button is to unlock them.

The incident report for the partner was probably easy. Both probably were for that matter. "I went inside xxx business to use the restroom, locking the ambulance behind me with my partner asleep in the back, and returned to find the ambulance gone and contacted dispatch and a supervisor via radio and cell phone immediately."

"I went to sleep in the back of the ambulance at xxx post at xxx time with my partner in the xxx seat in the front of the ambulance. I awoke at xxx time to the ambulance moving at a high rate of speed and driving erratically. I noted a female driving and a male in the passenger seat. The ambulance slowed to a near stop at xxx location and I exited the vehicle via the back (or side is where I'd probably go) for my own safety and immediately contacted dispatch and a supervisor via radio/cellphone."

Done.

Edit: we also have to leave out units running, and technically in high idle when parked, per company policy.

 

[socalmedic]

we have one unit in my area that the crew leaves the key in the ignition and keeps the clicker in their pocket. they lock the rig but it isn't that hard to pop the door on an E-350...

typically at the hospital the ambulance is unlocked, often with the doors open or windows down to keep cool, but we don't leave the keys inside. out hospitals have segregated ambulance corridors and the ambulances are visible from inside the ER.

to the best of my knowledge nothing has been stolen from our ambulances recently, but it is entirely possible. we should all take this as a wake-up call (no pun intended) to take better security of out unit.

 

[UnkiEMT]

we should all take this as a wake-up call (no pun intended) to take better security of out unit.

As much as I've been giving crap to the various Superior crews I run into at facilities, the only surprising thing about this, really, is that it doesn't happen more often.

I still haven't gotten the chance to really gossip with one of them to find out what the internal reaction is, or for that matter whether there were SOPs being broken.

Oh, and for the record, I believe that Superior stages an ambulance at the hospital in the article, I'm assuming that's the rig that was stolen.