By Rocco Parascandola, Thomas Tracy
New York Daily News
NEW YORK — An emotionally disturbed man swiped an idling private ambulance off a Bronx street Thursday — taking the rescue vehicle on a short joyride before crashing it into a car, police said.
The ambulance, owned by RCA Ambulance Services, was sitting in front of the company’s Bronx dispatch office on Jerome Ave. near E. 213th St. in Norwood, just outside of Woodlawn Cemetery, around 8:45 a.m. when the suspect jumped into the driver’s seat and drove off with it.
The green and white ambulance was on and the keys were in the ignition, cops said.
The thief sped north on Jerome Ave., past the cemetery grounds, to E. 233rd St., where the ambulance sideswiped another vehicle and crashed.
A 41-year-old man and a 38-year-old woman inside the other vehicle suffered minor injuries, along with the ambulance thief, who remained unidentified Thursday.
The ambulance thief and one of the victims in the other car were taken to North Central Bronx Hospital for treatment. The other victim in the car struck by the ambulance refused medical attention.
Charges against the ambulance thief — who was emotionally disturbed, according to a police source — were pending Thursday.
A call to RCA Ambulance Services for comment was not immediately returned.
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