An Ambulance Is Not A Rental Car For When You Need A Ride Home From The Police Station

Just like 9-1-1 is not your personal complaint hotline, ambulances aren’t just roving free taxis, ready and waiting to take you home from the police station. On that note, if you’d like your arrest charges to go from something relatively measly like a misdemeanor for an open container to a slew of felony charges, stealing an ambulance from the police station will do the trick.

An Arizona man has been charged with motor vehicle theft, felony flight, aggravated DUI and aggravated assault on police officers, reports the Arizona Republic, after allegedly hopping into an ambulance to drive home.

He’d just been released by police, who picked him up on suspicion of having an open container of beer at a store near Tempe, Ariz. He’d gone through the processing for the misdemeanor crime and was ready to go with only a citation as a result, until he allegedly saw that bright, shiny ambulance as a free ride.

It was parked outside the police department, say officials, and he’s been accused of simply hopping in and driving home. He was arrested shortly after.

A police rep says the man was transported to the hospital for what seemed to be minor injuries, but I’m going to go ahead and guess he didn’t drive himself there in that same ambulance.

Chandler PD: Man released, steals ambulance [Arizona Republic]

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