Ambulance Stolen as Pa. Crew Picks Up Patient

Someone stole an ambulance that was left running on Franklin Street on Friday night while paramedics were getting a patient out of a nearby high-rise apartment building, according to Reading police.

Police found the Western Berks ambulance abandoned at 10th and South streets a short time later.

A witness told police someone had jumped out of the ambulance and run into a nearby building, but police were still trying to determine late Friday who stole it.

They did find a man having an asthma attack nearby, but did not know if there was any connection. He was taken to Reading Hospital.

According to police, the ambulance had been dispatched to the George M. Rhodes Apartments at 801 Franklin St. shortly after 6 for a sick person.

The crew left the unlocked ambulance running near Eighth and Franklin streets while it went into the high-rise.

When it came out of the building with the patient the ambulance was gone.

The crew called for a backup ambulance from Western Berks to take the person to the hospital. The backup ambulance was there within about 10 minutes, according to Berks County 9-1-1 dispatchers.

No one from Western Berks could be reached for comment.

Police said there was no damage to the stolen ambulance and nothing appeared to be missing.

"I can't think of an ambulance ever being stolen before in the city," said Lt. David Shilling, a longtime veteran of the department. "We've had police cars stolen and a hearse but never any ambulances."

However, other emergency workers said a Muhlenberg Township ambulance was stolen by a drunken man at the old St. Joseph Hospital in 2001. That ambulance was later found crashed in the area of Alsace Township.

And an ambulance from Hamburg was stolen decades ago while paramedics were on a call at a trailer park in Tilden Township, emergency workers said.

Copyright 2013 - Reading Eagle, Pa.

McClatchy-Tribune News Service