The Neosho County ambulance department expects to have a temporary replacement later this week for a unit involved in a shooting incident Saturday.
Neosho Memorial Regional Medical Center Ambulance Director Trace Hallack said he has not had a chance to assess the damage to the ambulance, which has been impounded by the Kansas Bureau of Investigation. He said he has contacted Osage Industries, a company that supplies the county’s ambulances, and they have volunteered a loaner vehicle.
Hallack said he expects it will be 30 days before the county’s ambulance is returned. He will get the temporary ambulance this week from Linn, Mo.
The KBI is investigating the Saturday incident, where a Chanute man allegedly stole the ambulance from the parking lot of Walmart and a Chanute police officer fired at the vehicle. Hallack said he has experienced one other ambulance threat in 39 years, and that was in Hutchinson. He told members of the Neosho County Commission Monday evening that he has investigated and is installing devices on other ambulances that would prevent an unauthorized person from putting them in gear.
(Read more: The Chanute Tribune)