Port St. Lucie - Tuesday September 5, 2023: A Miami woman wearing a hospital gown has been charged with stealing an unoccupied ambulance from the parking lot of the HCA Florida St. Lucie Hospital last Thursday afternoon.
25-year-old Marquisa Allen of Miami, a hospital patient, was sitting outside the hospital on a bench in her hospital gown. While ambulance personnel were inside the hospital dropping off a patient, Allen got in the ambulance and drove off, according to a release from the Port St. Lucie Police Department (PSLPD).
The ambulance had a GPS tracker which allowed officers to track her and notify area law enforcement of her location. Florida Highway Patrol (FHP) troopers soon found her in the stolen ambulance stuck in traffic on the Turnpike.
When FHP Troopers closed in, Allen got out of the ambulance and began to run away, but she was quickly taken into custody after a short foot pursuit.
Allen was booked into the Martin County Jail on charges of giving false information to police, driving while license suspended, and resisting without violence. Additional charges from PSLPD are pending.