Dan Conger and Brian Tedcastle of Barnstead fire rescue were coming off a long drive transporting a patient to Concord Hospital on Friday morning when they decided to stop for coffee at the Cumberland Farms gas station on North Main Street.
But it wasn’t the pit stop they were hoping for when police say a Tilton woman attempted to steal their ambulance as it idled in the parking lot.
Diane Lang, 46, of Tilton was arrested for attempted theft of the Barnstead ambulance. Lang also allegedly drove from Tilton to Concord in a stolen car, Deputy police Chief Keith Mitchell said.
Mitchell said he expects Lang will face other charges as police continue to investigate.
“You never know what you’re going to run into out there,” Barnstead fire Chief Shawn Mulcahy said Friday afternoon, recounting the incident.
Lang was arrested Friday morning after trying to drive off in the ambulance and getting into an altercation with a Brinks Armored Truck driver who was also parked at the gas station, according to Concord Police.
The incident was witnessed by Monitor Photo Editor Geoff Forester who was getting gas.
Witnesses said Lang pulled into the Dominos Pizza next to the gas station at a high rate of speed around 8 a.m. Friday morning.
She walked over to the Cumberland Farms parking lot and proceeded to get into an altercation with a Brinks Armored Truck driver who was carrying a bag of money from the Cumberland Farms gas station back to his vehicle.
The truck driver started yelling that Lang was trying to rob him and for someone to call the police, witnesses said.
At the same time, Conger and Tedcastle were in the gas station, getting coffee.
As the two emergency responders tried to ensure that gas station patrons were safe, they noticed the woman walking over to their ambulance, which was still idling.
Conger ran out to the ambulance as Lang was getting into the driver’s seat. He managed to wrestle her out of the vehicle and Tedcastle was able to keep her subdued on the ground, according to Mulcahy.
The ambulance began to roll across the parking lot, going about 2-3 miles per hour, hitting two parked cars, Mulcahy said.
Conger was able to jump back into the driver’s seat of the slow-moving vehicle and stop it before it rolled into traffic, the chief added.
“We’re grateful that it didn’t get out of the parking lot,” Mulcahy said. “I don’t believe we’ll ever step away from a vehicle with the keys in it again. Make sure no matter where we are, we’re secure.”
The chief said that all in all, his men were lucky. They did not sustain any injuries from the incident and the ambulance just received minor bumper damage.
“We know we dodged a bullet,” Mulcahy said.
(Ella Nilsen can be reached at 369-3322, enilsen@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @ella_nilsen.)