A West Virginia car thief was caught by cops after an ambulance was stolen while paramedics were responding to a medical emergency.
Ambulance stolen by repeat car thief
Early Monday morning emergency medical technicians left their rig in front of a home in Huntington to attend to a critically ill patient, when Anthony Ray Bell, 37, hopped into the ambulance and sped away from the scene, leaving paramedics unable to transport the victim to the hospital.
Bell took the ambulance on a joyride that ended abruptly when pulled over and fled, but failed to put the gear into park and the emergency vehicle crashed into a house. Nobody was harmed when the unattended rig rammed into the home.
He didn’t get very far, because the ambulance was only missing for 10 to 15 minutes before it was discovered with Bell nowhere in sight.
His motive for taking the paramedic’s vehicle is unclear, but stealing the equipment and drugs inside the vehicle was apparently not the purpose, as nothing was reported missing.
Police were able to quickly identify Bell because he was seen on the ambulance’s dashboard camera while committing the crime. Bell had warrants out for his arrest at the time for auto theft and an assortment of other misdemeanors.
Ambulance stolen but not out of service
Despite plowing the ambulance into a home, the rig was shockingly intact after the accident and only required two hours worth of repairs.
Bell was detained by local police and incarcerated at the Western Regional Jail later that day with a cash bail set at $25,600. He is scheduled to appear in court on May 7.
In a separate car theft incident, a teenage boy was arrested in Florida after taking his friend on a 1,300-mile cruise to get some sun.
17-year-old Jalen Reed stopped by cops at a Palm Coast gas station after his father discovered that both his son and silver Chrysler Sedan missing from their Wisconsin home after returning from a business trip.
Reed was banned from driving his father’s car after being pulled over a few weeks ago in Green Bay, Wisconsin, for driving recklessly.
According to Florida sheriffs, “He had stolen the keys and left Wisconsin two or three days prior” to his arrest.
On Tuesday, Reed was pulled over for speeding through a school zone at 31 mph, which was far over the 20 mph limit.
He managed to get away with a warning by claiming he was new to the area and wasn’t aware that he was cruising eleven miles over in a school zone.
Teenage car thief arrested
Hours later, the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office found out that the Chrysler’s plates had been flagged as a stolen vehicle. Reed was also listed as a missing person.
Local law enforcement tracked down the teenage car thief and his friend, 18-year-old Katie Stevens, at a nearby gas station.
Reed was arrested on charges of grand theft auto and was transferred to the Sheriff Perry Hall Inmate Detention Facility, then transferred to the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice in Daytona Beach.
Stevens was also taken into custody on the same charge in addition to being slapped with Contributing to the Delinquency of a Minor. She was held on $2,000 bond.
Sheriff Rick Staly lauded his deputies for tracking down Reed and his Dad’s car.
“A runaway in a stolen car is a recipe for disaster, but due to our team’s efforts a stolen car was safely recovered, a missing juvenile was found and arrested before anyone could get hurt,” he remarked.
“And his adult accomplice gets to spend the remainder of her Florida vacation in the Green Roof Inn,” Staly quipped about Stevens’ stint in jail.
