Thieves Target Ambulance GPS Units

MMiz

MMiz

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Thieves Target Ambulance GPS Units

MEMPHIS, Tenn. - While paramedics are helping others, Memphis crooks are helping themselves. Memphis fire officials say several GPS units have been stolen from their ambulances while paramedics were tending to patients.

The fire department says they got the GPS systems to help paramedics find their way and improve service. Now they're working on a way to secure the systems.

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I hide mine under the drivers seat hoping they go for the morphine first.
 
I thought it was mandatory that you had to secure or lock the rig while not in it?!:ph34r:
 
Mandatory!=people doing it?
 
On every ride along I have done, they always lock the rig to ensure those things do not happen. It would be the most logical thing to me.
 
Oh, I agree it's the logical thing to do. That doesn't mean that it always happens.
 
We have had cases here where crooks steal GPS units from State Emergency Service vehicles ( Community Volunteer Emergency response for natural disasters as well as road rescue units in rural areas). But I think with most ambulances, they are secured into the ambulance centre console so it would take a fair bit of time to get it out.
 
mine is personally owned and I keep it with me unless I know the scene is secured (ie. multiple cops in the area and no bystanders can get into the area or we are parked in our garage with the door closed) and even then I usually unclip it and put it in my pocket. If we started treating company equipment as our own, then maybe we'd lose it less often!
 
We are not told that we need to lock our rigs, and people tend to not "in case we need to get in fast." Personally, I think that's idiotic. That extra two seconds to unlock the truck isn't going to hurt anyone.

Plus, right after I was released, me and my partner parked the truck and went into Target for some thing or another... When we came out, there was a guy sitting in the passenger seat, playing on the computer. When he saw us, he waved while smiling.

"Oh, hey, don't worry, I wasn't going to steal anything. I just always wondered what it looked like in one of these."

"Yeah, no, get out of my truck."

"Ok, sorry. Can I see the back first?"

"Um... OK, I guess..."

I mean, I didn't want to be bad publicity for the station and the department by telling him to get the hell out and be a jerk about it. It's true, the guy didn't steal anything, and it was partially my fault for not locking the truck no matter how stupid it was for him to think he could just wander in and start toying with the computer. So I showed him the back, some of the equipment, and he went off happy.

From that day on, though, I lock the entire dang thing front and back every time I leave it unless it's locked up inside the station or we are on scene. Don't care what my partner says, it gets locked if I'm on board.
 
I had an AED stolen out of my truck while out at the hospital and surveillance tape showed it. Truck was locked but we had those little "flip switches" in the grill and they must have known. I don't know why but when I was putting the stretcher back in I just happened to look up and it didn't look "normal"
 
I have never once seen one of our trucks locked. I know that crooks can come from anywhere or be anywhere but we have never yet had a problem with ours. The area I live in however I leave my house unlocked at all times and my truck is parked outside with the keys in it in case my neighbor needs to use it for something. The glory of small town USA I guess that everyone in this town knows everyone and if you don't look familiar people will be watching you.
 
I thought GPS thefts only occur in New York... just kidding.

New York State Department of Health recently made a policy statement recommending securing ambulances. It quoted an interesting study.

A study titled, "Ambulance Snatching: How Vulnerable Are We" identifies a sampling of 151 ambulance arrivals observed at emergency departments in several states. The average time present at the Emergency Department was 21.5 minutes, 23.2% of the vehicles were left with the engine running, 26.5% were left with doors or compartments open, 90.1% were left unattended and 84.1% were left unlocked.
Click to expand...
http://www.health.state.ny.us/nysdoh/ems/pdf/09-07.pdf
 
Every once in a while I'd find another one of my companys' trucks unlocked and I'm generally kind enough to lock them. Unfortunately I can't claim to be above first setting the siren to phaser as a 'friendly' reminder TO lock the unit next time. On a side note, this is why I always leave the siren off; I've caught people doing this to me before because I noticed the switch flipped.
 
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