Joy Ride Ends with a TASER Assisted Arrest

A 26-year-old man stole an ambulance that he found parked outside a local hospital emergency room. The vehicle was left unlocked and running while employees went to pick up a patient for transfer.

At first, the hospital employees weren’t sure if the vehicle had simply been moved, but once the theft was verified, they called in police to try and reclaim their missing ride.

The search for the absent ambulance began at about 3:30 p.m. and the vehicle was spotted about 20 minutes later. Police closed in and requested that the driver pull the ambulance over to the side of the road. The driver flipped on the ambulance’s lights, as if he were on a call.

A rolling roadblock was created and they eventually managed to force the driver to slow down and stop. The driver was found to be unarmed, but still uncooperative. Repeated requests to exit the vehicle were ignored. A police officer finally opened the door and tried to remove the driver from the driver’s side. A two-minute altercation took place until another officer used a TASER to subdue the driver.

The driver was arrested and taken to jail where he was charged with a variety of infractions.

Defusing a Serious Situation
While this theft probably resulted from a random opportunistic event, an ambulance is a large vehicle with a great deal of potential to do serious damage. When it became clear that the driver of the stolen vehicle refused to cooperate with police officers, the use of a TASER prevented any further escalation.

The driver endangered people on the road, denied those in need of ambulance assistance from getting it, and created a situation where officers were concerned for their own safety. Fortunately, no one was injured in this situation.

The availability of the TASER allowed officers to quickly gain control of the situation without using lethal force.