Stolen ambulance returns to Arlington Heights, whisks newborn to hospital
The 27-year-old woman accused of stealing an Arlington Heights ambulance and leading police on a wild ride to downstate Rantoul was ordered held on $150,000 bail Saturday.
Samantha Sligar faces charges of possession of a stolen vehicle and driving on a suspended license and would need to post 10 percent in order to be released from the Champaign County Correctional Center. She lived in Jacksonville, Florida, according to jail records, but gave Rantoul police a Minneapolis address.
Early Friday morning, Sligar stole an unlocked ambulance idling outside of a restricted area at Northwest Community Hospital, police said.
No witnesses saw Sligar, who was a hospital patient, drive away with the rig, police said. Its crew — two male Arlington Heights paramedics — was busy delivering a patient to the emergency room and restocking supplies.
Two hours later, Rantoul police finally disabled the ambulance on Interstate 57 after officers tried unsuccessfully to get Sligar to pull over along a roughly 150-mile trip, police said. During the route, Sligar drove recklessly, police said, with the ambulance's lights flashing and sirens blaring.
Rantoul police spread stop sticks across the southbound interstate before the ambulance reached traffic around a serious crash, authorities said. One tire was punctured, and soon after, the ambulance came to a stop.
Sligar told investigators 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.
Meanwhile, the ambulance got a new tire and returned to the fire station at 3030 N. Arlington Heights Road about 5 p.m. Friday.
A bundle of joy capped the saga for ambulance No. 4. Paramedics rushed to a parking lot on Rand and Arlington Heights roads where a mother had just delivered her baby about 1 a.m. The woman went into labor and was headed to the hospital but “didn't quite get there in time,” Battalion Chief Bill Essling said.
Mom and baby were taken in the repaired ambulance to Northwest Community Hospital, where both are doing fine, Essling said.
It was a “nice ending to a day that started out a little bit weird,” he said.