'Idiot' steals ambulance keys during call-out | Rotorua News | Local News in Rotorua

Taupo ambulance staff are disgusted after someone they call an "idiot" stole the keys from an ambulance when it was left running at a call-out - and say the stunt could well have put lives at risk.

St John Ambulance Taupo operations team manager Graeme Harvey said staff were horrified at the act but were now concentrating
on trying to locate the distinctive keys.

Mr Harvey hoped the person responsible would realise the implications of what they've done and either anonymously let staff know
where they dumped the keys, or return them to the station.

He's also asking residents around the Tobin Place/Richmond Heights area to have a look in their properties to see if they can find
them.

The set of keys has a distinctive big black Mercedes Benz key on it, as well as a fluoro orange tag with "Taupo One" written on it.

He said they also included a blue remote control and several other keys.

"It was quite a big bunch. The chances are they were just thrown away and hopefully someone around the area might find them."

Staff were at a medical job in Tobin Place when the keys were stolen. People had been seen to be hanging around the ambulance and
Mr Harvey said there were several people around because of a party down the road.

Ambulance officers discovered the keys were missing when they went to load the patient into the ambulance to take them to
hospital.

"They realised that the ambulance wasn't running and thought, "Oh my God, the keys are gone'."

Mr Harvey said there was then the delay of having to call another ambulance from town to get the patient to hospital while the initial
ambulance had to be towed back to the station.

Had the patient been in a more serious condition, the outcome could have been far worse, Mr Harvey said.

"It was just stupidity. Whether someone was trying to be funny or thought they were cool doing it as a joke, it could have cost
someone their life."

He says if a second serious job came in, the service wouldn't have been able to respond.

While they had a second set of keys for the ambulance, Mr Harvey said they're wary about using it in case someone still had the keys
and used them to steal equipment.

He said ambulances were often left running for safety reasons, to allow heaters to stay on and to make it quicker to get patients to
hospital.