Fire Battalion Truck Stolen In Atlanta

It seems more and more people are stealing emergency response vehicles in the past year or so. Sometimes they’re swiping ambulances which have shown up to help injured people. Other times they’re boosting police cars at the scene of a crime. But quite a few of these thefts involve firetrucks.

Watch a woman smoking inside her Dodge Charger blow it up.

That last one has happened yet again, this time in Atlanta back on the night of January 4. The thief stole a Battalion Truck while firefighters were actively battling a blaze. It just so happened police were nearby responding to reports of a stolen vehicle, and not the one belonging to the fire department.

It doesn’t seem like coincidence that in the same area where one vehicle was stolen a second was taken. What’s really weird about this phenomenon of stealing emergency vehicles is they’re not exactly inconspicuous. Sure, regular citizens will think you’re a legit first responder, but police put out a city-wide lookout and eventually found the truck on the other side of the city where it had been abandoned.

A report from Fox 5 indicates nothing was taken from the stolen truck, leading us to believe it was used simply as a convenient way to leave the scene of a crime. We’re sure police are looking into all possibilities, but it’s possible the suspect had some connection to the stolen vehicle in the area or the fire.

What’s really bad about these thefts of emergency response vehicles is they take away an important piece of machinery as first responders try to help people in desperate situations. The worst is when suspects crash ambulances, firetrucks, etc. and take them out of commission for weeks at a time.

But even if a thief takes an emergency vehicle for just a short time, it’s out of service for that period and the time it takes to search it for evidence and check that everything is working properly. We doubt thieves care about this, but their actions are affecting others when they’re most vulnerable.

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