Woman steals on-duty Iqaluit ambulance, then crashes it

RCMP say they found a crashed Iqaluit ambulance Friday night, June 12, which had been stolen from the scene of an emergency call. (FILE PHOTO)

A woman is facing charges after taking a drunken joy ride in an ambulance — that emergency personnel had left unattended while responding to a call — and crashing it into a fence

At close to 9 p.m. June 12, RCMP and municipal enforcement officers found the stolen ambulance on Federal Road.

Police say the ambulance went off the road and hit a fence.

“It was later determined that the ambulance had been stolen a short time earlier, while the ambulance attendants were busy responding to a person in need of medical assistance,” a June 15 RCMP news release stated.

RCMP said one woman was arrested.

Maryanne Lyta was scheduled to appear in court June 15 on two impaired charges and one charge of motor vehicle theft in relation to this incident.

The alleged ambulance thief was not hurt and no one else was in the vehicle at the time of the crash.

This isn’t the first time someone’s taken advantage of emergency responders on duty.

Last month a thief went into the open fire hall in Iqaluit and stole a backpack that belonged to an emergency medical technician who was out on a call.

That story generated a blast of condemnation from online commenters.