Drugs, diesel and defibrillator among items stolen from Yorkshire's ambulances
Our exclusive figures reveal an ambulance is broken into more than once a month
Life-saving equipment including a defibrillator has been stolen from Yorkshire's ambulances.
Our exclusive figures reveal more than one ambulance every month is targeted by thieves, with many out of action for days.
Among the items stolen were drug bags, paramedics’ uniforms, a blue light bar and a car bonnet.
The figures from Yorkshire Ambulance Service show nearly 60 thefts were recorded in the last five years – and Interim sector commander Claire Lindsay says each incident is incredibly frustrating:
“They’re out there saving lives every day and to have a vehicle broken into causes a lot of down time because that vehicle is then off the road.
“Quite often it needs different departments (to repair it). So it’s just the amount of time it has to spend off the road. We don’t have an unlimited amount of resources, so it always has a knock-on effect.
“That ambulance crew are also off the road for a number of hours whilst we deal with the police, maybe getting fingerprints and so on. Taking an ambulance crew off can have a really detrimental effect.
“It could be a member of your family. Would you not like us to have the capacity and the vehicles to be able to attend to your family appropriately?”
Earlier this month an ambulance was vandalised and paramedics had their personal belongings stolen while they dealt with a poorly patient in Beeston