SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) – A man stole a San Francisco ambulance from two paramedics early Monday and drove laps in the Best Buy parking lot in the city’s design district, according to San Francisco Police Department Commander Raj Vaswani.
The suspect chased the paramedics with the ambulance “trying to hit them,” Vaswani tweeted, after breaking out windows. “Then [the suspect] abandoned the Ambulance in the back lot, fled scene by scaling a fence at Treat/Florida St.”
The paramedics were not injured, he concluded.
The San Francisco International Association of Fire Fighters Local No. 798 was the first to post about the incident, stating that two members were attacked by someone trying to assault them.
According to that tweet, the person was using a stake from a tree and smashed the ambulance’s windows.
“This is another ambulance out of service and two personnel who are rightfully, shaken up,” the tweet states. “This behavior in our city is not acceptable.
“Last week our union hall was broken into and ransacked,” a follow-up tweet states. “@SFPD responded and caught the burglar but not before he did thousands of dollars of damage. We have all [been] patient enough. It’s time for some changes.”
The tweet tags Mayor London Breed and District Attorney Brooke Jenkins.
Photos show significant damage to the ambulance’s windshield.
According to a tweet from the fire department, the incident occurred at 6:55 a.m. at 1717 Harrison Street, where the ambulance was “posted for emergency response.” There were no injuries. The suspect, described as a “Latin Male Adult wearing black jacket and brown pants 40s” was described as yelling while he smashed the windows with a “heavy wooden object.”
The ambulance is out of service due to “thousands of dollars in damage” and the medics received “emotional support and returned to work servicing and protecting SF,” a subsequent tweet states.
The suspect ran away and is not in custody, the tweet concludes.
Neither the fire department or the union local mentioned the theft of the ambulance.
The San Francisco Fire Department and the San Francisco Police Department did not return requests for comment Monday.
The San Francisco Mayor’s Office provided the following comment:
“This is upsetting when it happens to our residents, visitors and city staff. Our firefighters, paramedics and all first responders work hard every single day – often times putting their lives on the line – to ensure the safety of San Franciscans. We take incidents like this seriously and want to thank SFPD for their involvement in these investigations.”
