Oak Bluffs ambulance service finds borrowed truck in Tisbury

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Someone took liberty with the concept of an “intercept vehicle,” a Ford Expedition used by the Oak Bluffs ambulance department to transport personnel to other towns, and “borrowed” it for an unauthorized early morning run to Vineyard Haven on New Year’s Day.

An Oak Bluffs EMT who works at the Green Room in Vineyard Haven got word that the truck was parked on Church Street and reported it to the Oak Bluffs Police at 7 am, according to ambulance chief John Rose.

“Oak Bluffs ambulance personnel came back from an ambulance run at 3:30 am and had used the vehicle, so we figure it was ‘borrowed’ sometime between then and 7 am,” Mr. Rose said in a phone call with The Times yesterday.

The truck is not stocked with any drugs and is used strictly for transport, Chief Rose said. Fortunately, whoever drove it left it safely parked and unharmed, he added.

“The vehicle was in perfect condition,” Chief Rose said. “Whoever borrowed the vehicle parked it under a street light for us, locked the vehicle up so nobody else would take it, and put the keys in the console for us.”

“I don’t know if it was a one-upsmanship incident or someone helping themselves with a ride back to town,” said Tisbury Police Detective Mark Santon, who also responded along with Oak Bluffs Police to the report about the truck.

Detective Santon said he continues to investigate the theft of medications and supplies from Tisbury’s spare ambulance that occurred sometime between Christmas Eve and the afternoon of December 26.