Paramedic arrested in new drug theft

A Clark County Fire Department paramedic arrested almost three weeks ago in connection with 11 drug burglaries has been arrested again.

Metropolitan Police Department spokesman Jose Montoya said Samuel Bond broke into county Fire Station No. 65 sometime before 6:30 a.m. Saturday and stole narcotics.

Fire Department spokesman Scott Allison said the drugs were taken from an ambulance locked inside the station, 3824 W. Starr Ave.

Later Saturday, Bond was found passed out on his father's driveway, Montoya said.

Bond, 35, was taken to University Medical Center where he was stabilized before being re-booked in the Clark County Detention Center. The jail has programs to treat inmates with drug problems.

Bond, who has worked for the Fire Department for more than six years, remained in the detention center Saturday night without bail.

He faces charges of burglary, auto burglary, possession of stolen property, possession of dangerous drugs, possession of a firearm by a prohibited person and unlawful possession of burglary tools.

Allison would not specify what drugs were missing from Saturday's burglary, but he said they were "similar" to the ones stolen previously. Bond is accused of stealing the opium-based painkiller morphine, and anti-anxiety drugs, Versed and Valium, among others.

Montoya said police don't know how Bond, who was on house arrest, broke free from his security-tracking device to get away from his father's home.

Detectives caught Bond on Sept. 30 running from an ambulance at Desert Springs Hospital Medical Center, a police report states. They said they saw him climbing inside a Medic West ambulance.

After his first arrest, Bond told police he was a "habitual drug user" and was "forced" to start stealing drugs after he was banned from all the department's fire stations.

Bond confessed to 11 drug burglaries, the first a July 19 incident at a Fire Department training center on Tropicana Avenue, an arrest report states.

Sometime after that Bond told Fire Department supervisors that he had a "dependency problem," police documents state.

That wasn't the only time Bond admitted his drug habit, according to the police report. On Aug. 20 after an AMR ambulance was broken into at Spring Valley Hospital, police said Bond left a note acknowledging his dependency. "I took your medicine. I have a bad problem. Please forgive me," the police report quotes the note as saying.

Dr. Dale Carrison, medical director for the Fire Department, said after Bond's initial arrest that he was dumbfounded the paramedic did not ask for help. "All he had to do was say he was sick, 'I'm addicted,'" Carrison said. "We would have given him help."

The Fire Department doesn't test its employees for drugs, but it does offer a voluntary program for those who need medical or psychological help, Assistant Fire Chief Russ Cameron said.

Bond was placed on administrative leave without pay Sept. 28. Allison would not comment Saturday on Bond's status with the department.

Bond is scheduled to appear in court Dec. 6. The case will be handled by the state attorney general's office.