Arlington Hts. recovers stolen ambulance 150 miles later

Under the cover of darkness, police say, Samantha Sligar slipped out of Northwest Community Hospital and into the driver's seat of an idling and unlocked ambulance.

Two Arlington Heights paramedics had wheeled a patient on a gurney into the emergency room and were restocking their supplies about 4 a.m. Friday as, police said, Sligar was making away with ambulance No. 4.

Two hours later and some 150 miles away, the ambulance was disabled alongside Interstate 57, and Rantoul, Illinois, police were handcuffing Sligar and taking her into custody. She told them she was going to her job at a St. Louis department store, according to police, but also that she considered going to Marion, Illinois. She said her car and her wallet had been stolen.

By all accounts what happened in between was one wild ride.

According to authorities, the Arlington Heights paramedics realized in less than 20 minutes their ambulance had been stolen. An alert went out, and Rolling Meadows police were the first to spot it, trailing the ambulance to Roselle Road where it then got onto eastbound I-90.

Squad cars from multiple departments followed the ambulance on I-90. Whether they voluntarily ended their chase in order to let the Illinois State Police take it over or they lost the ambulance is unclear.

At 4:40 a.m., an emergency alert went out. Police in south suburban Matteson located the ambulance heading south on I-57, but Sligar disregarded their command to pull over, according to a state police spokeswoman.

Further down the line, both Manteno police and Kankakee County officers each tried unsuccessfully to stop the ambulance, which by various accounts was recklessly speeding down Interstate 57, police said, running vehicles off the road with lights flashing and sirens blaring.

Authorities treated her carefully, not wanting to precipitate an accident. At one point, Sligar eluded Illinois State Police at 80 miles an hour with the ambulance's lights flashing, authorities said.

But as the ambulance approached the Ford/Champaign county line, authorities had to act. Troopers who were supposed to pick up the chase there were instead at a serious accident at milepost 211 involving several semitrailer trucks. Traffic was at a standstill behind it.

"We didn't want her to get there in that mess," Rantoul police Lt. Jeffrey Wooten said.

Rantoul police spread stop sticks, or spike sticks, across the southbound interstate. The sticks puncture tires and let the air out of them slowly, to limit the likelihood of rollovers.

The spikes shredded the ambulance's front left tire, but Sligar continued to drive awhile, police said, finally bumping to a stop at about milepost 250.

Rantoul police arrested her without incident, they said, and locked her up inside the police station. They asked her why she didn't pull over when police told her to.

"You have good cops, you got bad cops," she told them, according to the report.

"She was cooperative, but part of the story that she provided seemed illogical," Wooten said.

Sligar was charged with possession of a stolen vehicle and driving on a suspended license, Rantoul police said. According to the Champaign County Correctional Center, her last address was Jacksonville, Florida, but she gave police a Minneapolis address.

Sligar is due in Champaign County bond court Saturday morning.

Arlington Heights police said she had been admitted to Northwest Community Hospital on Thursday just before midnight, but they would not say why, citing privacy regulations.

Once Rantoul police have completed their investigation, Arlington Heights will consider whether to pursue charges locally, Capt. Mike Hernandez said.

Meanwhile, at Northwest Community Hospital, "a full internal investigation into the matter has already begun," hospital spokeswoman Alice Brown said.

Fire department officials said they will review their policy, standard at many departments, of leaving untended ambulances running in the designated parking areas outside emergency room entrances.

"We were in the right place at the wrong time," said Arlington Heights Deputy Fire Chief Peter Ahlman, who was awakened about 4:18 a.m. with the news an ambulance was stolen.

Ahlman drove to the hospital to talk to the two paramedics, who finished the rest of their shift on a reserve.

"It's pretty hard to rattle us," he said. "Our main concern was getting that ambulance back in service so the village was covered appropriately."

On Friday, Arlington Heights public works crews retrieved the ambulance and made repairs - including replacing the front tire and rim - before getting it back to the fire station at 3030 N. Arlington Heights Road.