Katherine Rosenberg-Douglas
Chicago Tribune
CHICAGO — A private ambulance that was parked outside a nursing home, unattended, unlocked and running, was stolen overnight and later crashed into a car in the Lakeview East neighborhood, sending one woman to an area hospital with injuries, police said.
About 12:30 a.m. Thursday an Elite Ambulance vehicle was left parked outside a nursing home in the 1800 block of South Wabash Avenue in the South Loop. It wasn’t immediately clear if or when the ambulance was reported stolen.
Authorities did not say whether the ambulance was waiting to transport a nursing home patient to a hospital. Kellie Bartoli, a police spokeswoman, said since Because the ambulance belongs to a private company, police can’t say what the vehicle or driver were doing at the time, said Kellie Bartoli, a police spokeswoman.
About 30 minutes after the ambulance was stolen, whoever was driving it rear-ended another vehicle in the 3000 block of North Sheridan Road in Lakeview East, police said.
A 29-year-old woman was hurt and she was taken to Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center, where she was treated for injuries that were not considered life-threatening, according to police. Preliminary information suggested two people were hurt, but officers later said the woman in the vehicle that was hit was the only person injured. Bartoli said the crash report was not yet finalized but the latest information she had was that only the woman was hurt.
After the crash, the ambulance thief ran from the scene and officers don’t have a description of that person, including whether it was a man or woman. The only information released about the person was that they were “short in height.”
Detectives were investigating.
———
©2020 the Chicago Tribune