Thieves Crashed Stolen Truck On I-75, Carjacked Ambulance: FHP

TAMPA, FL — Thieves crashed a stolen pick-up truck early Thursday morning on the southbound Interstate 75 exit ramp to westbound Interstate 4 before one of them carjacked an ambulance, according to a Florida Highway Patrol news release.

Troopers received reports from a supervisor with American Medical Response, a private ambulance service, who found the first stolen truck crashed on the exit ramp at 2 a.m.

The supervisor found a man at the crash site who immediately ran down the roadway embankment and another man standing in the road.

The second man jumped on the side of the AMR truck, climbed inside the vehicle and drove away, FHP said. The supervisor, who was in the truck, was able to open the door and escape without injury.

The carjacker sideswiped a car further along the exit ramp and continued to Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, where he was spotted by Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office deputies, who lost sight of the ambulance.

A short time later, an in-car camera system aboard the truck alerted AMR staff that it had crashed at 2:09 a.m. It also took a photo of the suspect in the vehicle.

As a result, the Tahoe was located at 3720 Martin Luther King Blvd., crashed and abandoned inside a fenced-in grass lot, FHP said.

Anyone with information about this incident or the identity of the carjacking suspect is asked to call *FHP (*347) or Crime Stoppers at **TIPS.