The owner of an ambulance stolen from outside Timaru Hospital early on Tuesday morning and taken for a joyride while a patient awaited transfer to Christchurch has described the incident as “gut wrenching”.
Dashcam footage provided to 1News showed the stolen ambulance travelling through thick fog at speeds of up to 82km/h.
Don Gutsell, who ran health and safety training provider ProMed, said the ambulance was left running to warm up while medical staff were preparing a patient to be transferred to Christchurch.
“It was a really cold, foggy night, and we left the vehicle running to heat up the back of it.”
Gutsell came out to get into the ambulance to realise it was gone at around 12.50am.
“I thought, ‘geez, I’ve left the bloody hand brake off’, so I go out, and there’s no ambulance buried in a hedge or anything like that,” he said.
When he could not find the ambulance, he rang police and then his wife, who tracked his phone which was still in the vehicle.
“We met the police down there on Hayman St and it was just sitting there with lights on. He probably went only 3 or 4km.”
Nothing was taken from the vehicle and there was no damage caused, something Gutsell was surprised with.
“My wallet was there, my phone was there and, because this [patient] was going to be needing some drug stuff, I put a drug kit in there. But everything was there and I just couldn’t believe it.
“I thought, ‘who the hell takes a vehicle like this’?”
The stolen ambulance travelled in thick fog at speeds of up to 82km/h on Tuesday morning. (Source: Supplied)
Gear had been stolen out of vehicles when he worked in emergency ambulance service 30 years ago, he said, but having the whole vehicle taken was “very daunting”.
“You’ve got a patient to worry about, although they were still in the hospital, you’re very conscious of the fact that this person needs to be in Christchurch.”
The joyride caused an hour-and-a-half delay to the patient’s transfer, Gutsell said.
“If you think of somebody who’s got to be taken to Christchurch from Timaru, then there’s got to be something really wrong with them.”
He said he and his staff would now have to turn off and lock vehicles rather than getting them warmed up for a patient to get into.
“It’s just a gut-wrenching, disappointing, bloody episode this morning.”
Police confirmed they were called at around 12.55am to Timaru Hospital after a report of a vehicle being stolen.
“It was located abandoned about 20 minutes later and returned to the victim.”
Police said inquiries into the circumstances were ongoing.