If An Ambulance Is Stolen...

...in Hollywood, does its siren make a noise?

Surprisingly, just a faint one. After a thief made-off with Rescue 27, and I breathlessly blogged about it last week (see below), it rated a small brief in the following day's L.A. Times. That brief, by the way was ripped off, per usual, from the local City News Service.

Now I understand that the LAFD is loathe to have a wave of copycat ambulance thieves swoop into unlocked RAs idling at ER bays, but come on. Some dude steals a bright red ambulance in the middle of the afternoon with big white lettering and numbering that clearly identifies it and makes his way almost 200 miles north on MAJOR FREEWAYS. People, this is a great story!

This is the last sentence of the AP report posted on CBS2's Web Site that evening:

"Even after the ambulance was found, fire department officials still had no idea about the circumstances behind the theft."

Whaaa???????

That's a classic journalism who, what, when, WHY question if I've ever seen one.

My guess is the LAFD/CHP/LAPD either didn't cooperate at all; asked the media to keep it quiet; and/or the local beat reporters didn't follow up. Also, not a whisper on the LAFD Blog. This is the same blog that chronicles the department's highlights--and recently, with the EEOC report and Tennie Pierce settlement, its lowlights. But nothing on the wayward ambulance.
It's also the same blog that last year posted a thorough and illustrated account after Rescue 75 was stolen and then pursued in Panorama City.

Come on, folks. If you can't laugh at yourselves, then we'll have to laugh at you.

By the way, wonder if the thief managed to get his hands on the narcotics inside the rig, since that's always a prime reason for ambulance theft.