The Daily Herald has a follow-up article on the theft of an Arlington Heihgts ambulance from Northwest Community Hospital last week.
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 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.
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.
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.
Arlington Heights Ambulance R2 (running as Ambulance 4) back in service at a Long Grove fire scene on Monday night. Larry Shapiro photo
