Welcome to my world!! No wonder patients and other medical professionals mostly say that it was the ambo crew who stole it, when a personal item goes missing. We have it all the time, and i am sure that we don't know half of it. I get the response that the patient (moreso blue code) does not need it , and can't use it any way. Don't forget the caretakers who steal from the elderly in the old age homes, who are not capible of defending there earthly posessions, of which they don't have a lot.
Currently we have have our local traffic police on strike. So the Police were called in as traffic police blocked a major highway during peak hour. What happened...they sot at each other, with non-leathal and live ammunition. The point is that some of the traffic officials openly admitted to offer bribary as an option to the offender, and accept these bribes, in order to avoid prosecution. I understand as to why they do it (low wages), but it is not the correct way.
I must haowever say that this practice does not apply to all the staff in the EMS, there are many, many good crews out there who do the right thing, i commend you.