Taiwan police track ambulance thief with GPS

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Police in Kaohsiung used GPS to track down and arrest a woman who stole an ambulance Saturday.

The Kaohsiung Fire Department vehicle was standing idle around 11:30 a.m. at the city’s Veterans General Hospital where nurses had just taken a patient into the emergency ward. Surveillance cameras showed a woman approaching the vehicle and driving off as it stood unguarded, with the rear door still up.

When the nurses left the hospital to drive their ambulance to a parking lot, they found the Hyundai Staria had disappeared. Police used the vehicle’s global positioning system to track it on its way to the city’s port.

Officers from the harbor police started tailing the ambulance because it was using its siren while continuing on its route with the rear door open. Half an hour after the theft at the hospital, police detained her as she stopped at a pier.

The woman, named Tsai (蔡), aged 41, will likely be charged with theft and disturbing public order, police said.