MINDEN, La. (KTAL/KMSS) – Minden police arrested a man on Tuesday after they say he stole a truck from a repair yard and allegedly set up camp in an ambulance there without permission.
Police say 55-year-old Gerald Beene took a Chevrolet Yukon parked in a storage yard of Advance Ambulance Service. The facility is a warehouse and storage for medical equipment and company vehicles needing service or repairs.
Beene allegedly drove the Yukon around for several hours before he returned it, and when he did, EMS workers who happened to be leaving the yard spotted him. They called Minden police because they knew Beene was not supposed to be there.
While officers reviewed surveillance footage from the facility to identify the man, an employee mentioned that someone had gone in and out of several ambulances. After inspecting the vehicles, officers say it was “evident that someone had been living in the vehicle.”
Inside the ambulance, officers found food, pornographic materials, clothes, needles, and other drug paraphernalia.
When officers caught up with Beene in a holding cell on some unrelated outstanding warrants, police say he admitted that the property in the ambulance was his. He also told investigators where to find the keys to the Yukon, which he kept after returning the vehicle.
Representatives from Advance Ambulance Service declined to comment except to say that Beene was not living in the ambulance but was trespassing on their property.
Beene was charged with unauthorized use of a motor vehicle, unauthorized use of a movable (ambulance), and theft.
