By Molly Walsh
cleveland.com
CHARDON, Ohio — A Hiram man is accused of stealing an ambulance after leaving the emergency room at University Hospitals Geauga Medical Center late Tuesday night, according to the Geauga County Sheriff’s Office.
Chardon police first responded around 11 p.m. to a home in the 100 block of Fairways Drive for a report of a drunk man who had punched a hole in a wall, Sheriff Scott Hildenbrand said. Officers found the 66-year-old suspect, who was taken to the hospital for evaluation because he was intoxicated.
“While he was there he just decided he wanted to leave,” Hildenbrand said.
The man walked out of the emergency department, got into a Community Care Ambulance parked outside and drove away, Hildenbrand said.
A sheriff’s deputy later spotted the ambulance near the intersection of Ohio 44 and Ohio 87 and stopped it. Hildenbrand said man was cooperative and got out of the vehicle without incident.
The suspect is charged in Chardon Municipal Court with obstructing official business, disrupting public service, and grand theft of a motor vehicle — all felony offenses.
The sheriff’s office said no injuries were reported.
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