Thieves steal sat nav and back pack from ambulance
THIEVES raided an ambulance as its crew tended to a pensioner with a badly injured ankle.
They stole a satellite navigation system and a back-pack containing the house keys, car keys and purse of Bristol Ambulance practitioner Chrissie Green.
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The crime took place on Leinster Avenue, Knowle West, after Ms Green and her colleague Shawn Eyes went to the home of a woman in her 80s, who had a suspected fracture.
The ambulance was locked and parked outside for almost two hours while they manoeuvred her safely from her bedroom and down the stairs on Monday.
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Between noon and 12.30pm, Ms Green went out and opened up the ambulance to get it ready for the woman to be taken to Bristol Royal Infirmary. But, as she went back inside for less than five minutes, thieves struck.
The back-pack they took contained Ms Green's house keys, the keys to her car, her purse containing about £5 and leads for her iPhone 5. She will have to change all the locks to her home because details of her address were also in the bag.
The 56-year-old said: "It was really upsetting – not just for me but for our patient because she was poorly, needed to go to hospital and we were trying to get her there as comfortably as possible. She was so upset that it had happened outside her house.
"I was disgusted how someone could do something like that to an ambulance that was clearly attending to a patient. How would they feel if we had been treating their parents or grandparents? In all my years with the NHS and ambulance service nothing like this has ever happened."
After retiring from the NHS after more than 20 years, Ms Green moved to South Bristol from Milton Keynes and joined private emergency service Bristol Ambulance EMS, which has a contract with Great Western Ambulance Service to attend accident and emergency calls and take people to hospital.
Ms Green said: "I need the sat nav to get to calls as quickly as possible – and to all the different hospitals – so I'm going to have to buy a new one because I doubt it will be covered by insurance."
The stolen back-pack was red and grey, had three compartments and mesh pockets on the sides.
Avon and Somerset police are appealing for anyone with information on the crime to call them on 101.
Comments
by Jenna_Talwart
Thursday, January 17 2013, 12:33AM
“Nice JamesInBris....empathy isn't your strong point then?”
by JamesInBris
Wednesday, January 16 2013, 12:42PM
“Not that I'm condoning this behaviour, but, if the ambulance was unlocked and unattended at the time, can you really be surprised that this happened? If the ambulance was locked, I wonder if the thieves would have just walked on by?
If I told my insurance company that my car was unlocked and unattended and my SatNav was stolen, I can only imagine what they'd say.
Also, if you were in charge of a vehicle with that much equipment, would you trust leaving it unlocked and unattended?
As I said, this is appalling behaviour on the part of the thieves, but a bit of common sense on the paramedics part could have stopped this from happening.”
by Bristolexpat
Wednesday, January 16 2013, 10:53AM
“Very good point blotto_otto.......that makes all the difference to this woman only trying to do her job????”
by blotto_otto
Wednesday, January 16 2013, 10:44AM
“Think the BEP would have done a small amount of research because the ambulance in question, one from Bristol Ambulance EMS, formally Bristol Paramedics, are a private ambulance firm anyway. They are based at Barton Hill/St Phillips and have been doing private work for quite a few years now and at great cost. A patient transfer from Bristol to Liverpool with the patient stable and jusf requiring observations would cost the NHS £1200 and thats was a normal nhs patient like you or me.”
by DockLobster
Wednesday, January 16 2013, 10:21AM
“Knowle West for you...”
by nickthompson
Wednesday, January 16 2013, 8:49AM
“This news is very bad,what is worse is that OUR Ambulance Service is becoming privatised.”
by Bristolexpat
Wednesday, January 16 2013, 6:37AM
“No surpirise unfortunately.”