Arizona patient uses ambulance to escape
GOODYEAR, Ariz. — Authorities say a patient wanting out of an Arizona hospital used an ambulance as his getaway vehicle.
Goodyear police spokeswoman Lisa Kutis says Michael Lopez hijacked a parked ambulance Sunday outside West Valley Hospital in metro Phoenix.
Kutis says a firefighter sitting in the back was able to jump out safely.
Police pursued Lopez, who failed to pull over.
Authorities used GPS to locate the vehicle and Lopez at his home in the suburb of Avondale.
Kutis says he was arrested on charges of theft of means of transportation, felony flight, failure to yield to police and disorderly conduct.
She did not know why Lopez was hospitalized.
She says Lopez, who felt he was being hospitalized against his will, is being booked into a Phoenix jail.
The ambulance was returned to firefighters.
