Grand theft … ambulance

ALBANY — At 8:13 a.m. Saturday, Albany Police Department Patrol Officers Jonathan Renaue and Keaundra Woodall responded in emergency mode after receiving a report of a motor vehicle theft in progress at the McDonald’s on North Slappey Boulevard.

The vehicle in question was a 2016 Chevy Ambulance operated by Dougherty County Emergency Medical Services. The vehicle was equipped with an automatic vehicle location device that allowed the dispatcher to determine the ambulance’s current location and relay that to the responding officers. The initial location was determined to be the intersection of Pine Avenue and Slappey Boulevard.

The incident report written by the responding officers indicates, “We proceeded southbound on Slappey Boulevard and located an ambulance traveling northbound. We then turned around behind the ambulance … and observed the ambulance pull into 8114 North Slappey Boulevard (the parking lot of Pearly’s restaurant).”

Renaue activated his vehicle’s blue lights, and the ambulance proceeded to park at the rear of the restaurant, according to the report. The officers observed a white female in the driver’s seat. They approached the vehicle and took her into custody. She was cuffed and, according to the report, Officer Kiwanis Monroe searched the suspect for weapons and contraband. None were found, and she would later be identified as Rachael Jossy.

The ambulance was secured, processed for latent prints and pictures were taken at the scene, the police report said. Jossy was transported to the downtown Law Enforcement Center for questioning.

The driver of the ambulance, Jonathan Todd, and his partner, Samantha Figueroa, were taken to the LEC, where the reporting officers got further details relating to the theft.

Todd and Figueroa stated they went inside 2448 N. Slappey (McDonald’s) at approximately 0800 hours for breakfast,” the report says. It goes on to document that the officers walked outside McDonald’s at approximately 8:12 a.m. and noticed that their ambulance was not where they had parked it. They notified their supervisor so that the police could be notified. They stated that the ambulance was unlocked and the keys were in the ignition.

Wendy Howell, the public information officer for Dougherty County, said that it is standard procedure to leave emergency response vehicles running so that, in the event of a call, they are not subject to battery failure or other cranking issues.

Jossy was transported to the Dougherty County Jail and charged with felony theft because the value of the vehicle is $147,000. There was no damage reported to the ambulance.

File Photo