Tremco Emergency Products
34 Sullivan Road, N. Billerica, MA 01862
August 3, 2019
Emergency officials say a man stole an ambulance from CaroMont Regional Medical Center on Friday and drove it to Kings Mountain.
The incident occurred around 8:35 p.m., when a Dallas Rescue Squad paramedic took a patient inside and left the vehicle unlocked.
The ambulance was left in an area where paramedics can quickly get patients medical treatment from hospital staff, according to Gaston Emergency Medical Services Maj. Jamie McConnell. Only ambulances are allowed in that lot.
“When they came out, they found the ambulance was missing,” McConnell said Friday.
The ambulance isn’t county-owned, but it has GEMS equipment inside that enables officials to track the vehicle’s location, McConnell said.
“Because of all the electronic tracking we have on vehicles, we were able to get police in pursuit of the vehicle,” he said.
Police tracked down the suspect, a Kings Mountain man named Joshua Kyle Poindexter, on the Gaston County side of Kings Mountain, McConnell said.
Poindexter, wasn’t a patient, allegedly led Gaston County Police on a chase while driving more than 15 mph above the speed limit.
The 29-year-old was eventually arrested and charged with larceny of a motor vehicle, fleeing to elude arrest, failing to heed a siren and reckless driving to endanger.
He was booked into Gaston County Jail under $35,000 bond.
Nobody was injured during the incident, and the vehicle was undamaged.
“That vehicle is ready to jump back into service and ready to take more patients to the hospital tonight,” McConnell said. “It’s a huge relief we don’t have to burden the residents by having to worry about losing an ambulance.”