# I "Stole" an Ambulance



## JonTullos (Sep 20, 2009)

I just started my first EMT-Basic job at a hospital-based service.  For the last two weeks I've been doing orientation and finished that on Friday.  The Basic scheduled for Saturday called out so I was asked to fill in, therefore I worked my first 24 yesterday.

I also managed to steal an ambulance. 

My truck was assigned to transfer a patient to another facility.  The other crew's truck was parked where I  normally would pull up my truck to load a patient so I have to move mine.  Somehow, as we're getting ready to go, I get the rigs mixed up.  By the time it's all said and done, I  managed to load the patient onto the other crew's truck and drove off in it.  I had no idea I had taken the wrong truck until after we left the hospital.  My medic laughed his head off.  Yes, it was a truck that belonged to us, it just wasn't the truck that my medic and I were assigned to.  

I still can't believe I did this!  I've already received lots of grief about this, including (as we're going out the door to respond to an MVC) an ER tech yelling to me, "don't steal anymore ambulances!" to a couple of phone calls since I got home this morning.  Lord only knows what grief awaits me when I report for my 48 on Thursday. 

So that's that.  Go ahead, and let me have it.   BTW, has anyone done any bonehead moves on their first day "on their own?"  Surely I'm not the only one.

Jon


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## rescue99 (Sep 20, 2009)

Oh Jon..this is going to be a looooonnnggg rookie experience! In a year or so it will be a urban legend you can deny, deny, deny


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## MIkePrekopa (Sep 20, 2009)

not too much grief... but that is really funny... I can see how this could happen.


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## JonTullos (Sep 20, 2009)

rescue99 said:


> Oh Jon..this is going to be a looooonnnggg rookie experience! In a year or so it will be a urban legend you can deny, deny, deny



Well, now there's written proof... LOL


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## Mountain Res-Q (Sep 21, 2009)

JT... my man...  :wacko:  Ya, if I was working a that company with you, you would NEVER hear the end of it... get ready for that next shift... stories like that spread fast...  LOL... now on to my "stolen ambo" story, just to make you realize that at least you didn't do this one...

NOTE:  I was not party to this one, but I am aware of a "stolen ambo" when I was working ambo... but, once again, I was not party to the actual theft 

At my company we used type 2 ambo (vans); except for the CCT and Neonatal rig, which were both type 3 (box style), for the extra room.  We were a private company, but the Neonatal rig was housed at the hospital that had the only neonatal unit within 100 miles.  When we got a neonatal transfer call, we had to go to the hospital, drop off our rig, pick up the neonatal rig (and usually jump it), pick up the neonatal crew form the hospital (2 RNs and a RRT), and play taxie for the next 4 hours, as neonatal calls usually invovled taking the neonatal crew to a hospital 1-2 hours away, waiting while they did their thing in the dinky hospital, and then transporting them back the 1-2 hours.  

Well, one of our crews was assigned to do a Neonatal call on this fine 100+ degree summer day.  When they left their regular rig at the hospital for the transfer, they left the windows rolled down and the keys in the ignition!  Mind you, this is the main parking lot for a trauma center in the middle of the city; by no means secure.  Well, several crews who were moving in and out of the hospital on calls knew this and saw this and decided that someone had to teach them a leason.  (Again, I might have heard about this from someone else and was not there or involved. )  One of the other crews decided to "steal" the rig (but is it really stealing if you have the keys and the authority to drive it? LOL).  The other main hospital was just 10 blocks away, so the crew took the rig to that hospital and secured it properly; waiting and hoping for the time when that first crew came back and found their rig gone.

Unfortunately, no one notified the supervisor of this plan (and had they, he probably would have encouraged this "corrective" action)... and unfortunately this first crew was really stupid... So what did they do when they got back 4 hours latter and noticed that their rig was "stolen"?  Instead of calling the Supervisor, they called 911.  The Highway Patrol came out, took a report, and put out a statewide BOL (be on the Lookout) for a white ambo (with blue and red lettering)!  Mind you, no one had even thought to notify the company, dispatch, or the supervisor.  When one of the other crews heard this (and knowing the real story), they had to step in and tell them where the ambo was...  Let's just say that the Highway Patrol was not amused (more like ready to press charges for filling a false report), the Supervisor (who had to deal with the LEOs) was pissed, the first crew didn't talk to any of us for a week, and the "stealing" crew got the "supervisor-beat-down".

SO, JT... it could be worse... instead of "stealing" and ambo... you could have had an ambo stollen from you and/or deserve it... LOL


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## Aidey (Sep 21, 2009)

That is one of those stories that shouldn't be funny at all, but is...

I once got in the wrong ambulance at the hospital, but I didn't drive away. The ambulance parking is only two lanes, and there were a ton of ambulances(all from our company I think) there when we dropped off our patient, so our rig was a couple back from the front of the line. 

Well, while we were inside a couple ambs left. One of our co workers re-arranged the parking and pulled our ambulance forward so other people could pull in. Well, when I walked out of  the hospital I went and got into the rig that was parked where mine had been....I got a bunch of funny looks....

FYI so the story makes sense, per company policy the ignition key stays in the ambulance, in the pocket on the visor when out of the rig. All of our door keys are universal, so the door key from Rig 20 will open the door to Rig 32 etc. So no, the ambulance was not left unlocked with the key in the ignition! lol


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## mycrofft (Nov 8, 2009)

*Didn't steal one buit was left in one sorta.*

I was the new guy and the wisearse driver would say "Well take Unit 8), I would go jump into eight, and he would climb into 9 or 12...worked especially well when the shift just started and/or the unit he named was in obvious need of cleaning etc, before a pt got on board, so I'd jump intothe back and scurry, ready to buckle up at a moment's notice.
He never atually drove off though...nevermind


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## Seaglass (Nov 8, 2009)

On my very first call with a new place, a coworker threw me her radio and asked me to turn it off. Unfortunately, nobody told me there was a panic button, or that it was the one right next to the power symbol. I still get teased occasionally, but my crew figured out what happened before it turned into a disaster, and I'm not the first person to have made that mistake. 

The best I've seen yet wasn't me, but someone in my class: 

For our ridealongs, we were told we'd be going to Station 1. The instructor asked if we knew where it was and everyone said yes. Well, one guy lived in the jurisdiction next door, right next to their Station 1. Next thing you know, the instructor gets a call during class. It's the wrong Station 1, letting him know that some random student just showed up saying he's scheduled for a ridealong. Luckily, the right Station 1 didn't care, and the wrong Station 1 thought it was hilarious enough to keep him for the rest of the shift. Apparently they've been a lot more careful about letting new classes know which service they'd be going with.


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## Onceamedic (Nov 8, 2009)

One of my EMT partners (who shall remain nameless) on his first call drives the rig up to the residence, positions it extremely well, jumps out, opens the back doors to pull out the gurney.  Well, the gurney kept moving farther and farther away from him.  He realizes he'd forgotten to put the rig into PARK.  Imagine fat boy running down the road after his ambulance.  It was hilarious.


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## EMSLaw (Nov 8, 2009)

Kaisu said:


> One of my EMT partners (who shall remain nameless) on his first call drives the rig up to the residence, positions it extremely well, jumps out, opens the back doors to pull out the gurney.  Well, the gurney kept moving farther and farther away from him.  He realizes he'd forgotten to put the rig into PARK.  Imagine fat boy running down the road after his ambulance.  It was hilarious.



Needless to say, it would have been less hilarious if the rig had crashed into something.  

I have yet to get in the wrong rig at the hospital or elsewhere.  Though I have done some legendarily bad parking jobs when I was in a hurry to get the patient out.


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## Onceamedic (Nov 9, 2009)

EMSLaw said:


> Needless to say, it would have been less hilarious if the rig had crashed into something.



that would definitely have put a damper on the fun.  Fortunately, it was about 3:00 am in Tweakerville, where they have all sold their cars for meth...  so traffic wasn't a problem.


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## JPINFV (Nov 9, 2009)

Oh, God... driving stories... 

First story won't be about me. My second EMS job was at an extremely small company. It had only been running a few years and they still had less than 5 EMTs not counting the owners and had 3 ambulances with two of them being almost brand new (both around 5k miles at the time). No training program to speak of, but I'm looking for just a 6 month job while I finish my thesis, so I'm not overly concerned about the quality of the place. I'm working with a brand new EMT-B and she's turning into the pump (and the gas pump is on the driver's side) at the gas station when we feel this bump. She states that she thinks she hit the curb, so I reply, "Well... back up." Now, reality for a minute. You shouldn't need a backer for backing up half a foot. You should also be looking out your window.

Well, instead of just backing up, she first straightens up the wheels so that we go straight back instead following the turn into the lane. It's at this point that we realize that, umm, yea. There is no curve and that bump was her turning too tightly and hitting the metal pipe that is protecting the island.



Ok. My story. This is at my first company. I've been driving a while and the company decides to hold an EVO day. Unfortunately, half the FTOs had absolutely no clue what they were doing (I taught one how to use the "siren/horn" selector switch on the center console at the mock code 3 intersection). So I haul over to the cone slalom course. Now the slalom course was two lanes (so 2 ambulances at a time) where the ambulance goes forward up the course, reaches the end, and then reverses back down the course. What everyone fails to understand (including the FTOs running this err... event) is that this is neither a race or that we're supposed to be using backers for the reverse part. So the other ambulance and mine complete the course in record time. Unfortunately I killed a cone somehow while going forward, which caused the training supervisor to remark that he's going to make it so that I can only drive in reverse. :blush:

Now to understand that story, I have to tell you this story. First day driving a type 3 and not very long after I started driving ambulances. Now the bay at headquarters can fit something like 30 plus units with one side having 2 ambulance deep parking lanes and the lanes divided by support beams (support beam, parking lane, parking lane, support beam). Well, I'm pretty close to the beam on the right side and the main exit is right, so I start to do a little flare to the left to get some buffer space. My genius partner makes a comment that "the exit is this way: ---->" so I start my turn. I get a 1/4 of the way through the turn when the support pole becomes BFFs with my right forward scene light. :blush: For the record, the scene lights on Horton mods are extremely well built.


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## Trauma's Mistress (Dec 19, 2009)

JonTullos said:


> I just started my first EMT-Basic job at a hospital-based service.  For the last two weeks I've been doing orientation and finished that on Friday.  The Basic scheduled for Saturday called out so I was asked to fill in, therefore I worked my first 24 yesterday.
> 
> I also managed to steal an ambulance.
> 
> ...




   LMAO !  Sorry  but this is too funny !


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## Trauma's Mistress (Dec 28, 2009)

kaisu said:


> one of my emt partners (who shall remain nameless) on his first call drives the rig up to the residence, positions it extremely well, jumps out, opens the back doors to pull out the gurney.  Well, the gurney kept moving farther and farther away from him.  He realizes he'd forgotten to put the rig into park.  Imagine fat boy running down the road after his ambulance.  It was hilarious.



hahahahahahaha   awesome !


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## EMTTim (Jan 31, 2010)

On my first day of orientation at my first EMS job, we were responding to a call and got cancelled. On our way back to the station our driver made a three-point turn in the middle of the road. When he pulled across the road a Chevy S-10 hit us on the front right side. It managed to miss anything vital and just tore off the bumper and twisted the fender. The best part is the county shop already had the parts because someone had hit a deer the week before, and a dog the week before that. The worst part is that I was riding in the back and still get blamed for it(beginner's luck?).



Several medics still call me Sh*t Hook.


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