South Central Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust (SCAS) is appealing for information to help the police find a man who stole medication from one of the Trust’s ambulances on Thursday, 23 January.
Towards the end of a night shift, an ambulance crew had been sent to a patient’s home on Craven Street, Southampton, at 4:20am. Having been able to treat the patient at home, the crew returned to their vehicle around an hour later and found that a man had broken into it and was proceeding to take items from the vehicle.
When challenged, he ran off.
The crew discovered a number of packets and bottles of medication (similar to those shown in the photo below) had been taken.
If anyone has information about this incident, or saw a male running on or in the vicinity of Craven Street around 5:30am yesterday, SCAS would urge them to contact Hampshire Police by calling 101 using reference number 44200027531.
Paul Jefferies, Assistant Director of Operations at SCAS, said:
“It is absolutely deplorable that someone should break into an ambulance and take medication that our staff need to ensure they can give patients the very best care. Whilst I am grateful that neither member of the crew were injured in any way, nor the vehicle damaged, I would urge the community to help Hampshire Police find this individual.
Whilst in this instance the patient’s care wasn’t affected in any way, this could easily have been a different story as the medication taken is used to treat life-threatening conditions and provide severe pain relief.”
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