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Darren Boyer, March 6 2021

Please don't tell the lawyers

This week someone stole an ambulance, drove it through three towns, several counties, across two massive bridges, and only stopped because they hit the ditch.  And there is so much more to this story.

Someone pulled over to help.   The good samaritan soon found their vehicle was the next one to be stolen by the ambulance driver and that they were now alone on the side of the road with an ambulance in a field! 

After this, the police got real serious.  Out came the cars, the spike belts and soon the guy was busted.  




This is a sample photo of the arrest.  

Provided by kennethkonica from flikr via photopin CreativeCommons

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A day later, in a different county not far away, a suspicious truck was reported on Lightcatch. 

The location of that vehicle, as it was on the move, was updated by 3 different people on the app.  It was then seen by a Peace Officer and they deemed it was worthwhile to pull the vehicle over.   Soon after, the drivers information and vehicle description was provided to the RCMP.  The whole situation was over within 45 minutes and everyone was safe.  

Cheque writing time

The ambulance theft was at least 90 minutes of drama, involved multiple first responders, several jurisdictions, towing contractors and more.  Plus there are the insurance costs from the two thefts, the court costs for the trial, the jail costs for the criminal and more.  

There was also a very high risk of people getting killed.   There were also the costs of trying to manage without one ambulance.  

What if someone could not get to the hospital fast enough because a needed ambulance was now stuck in a field?  What if police responding to this guy on a joyride were no longer able to help someone who really was at risk of their life and that person perished?


Municipalities and insurers are footing the bill for a lot of these costs today.  But everyone knows these organizations need to collect revenue to pay for those bills.  Eventually your tax bill and your insurance policy renewals will go up so incidents like this, and worse, can all be handled.

Yet the otherr community appears to have prevented a crime at minimal costs using less than a handful of people and 1 Peace Officer.   Comparing the two, one seems like such a colossal waste of resources.

Why couldn't the civic leadership, where the ambulance was stolen, have supported the use of Lightcatch as a free community safety service?  Why can't insurance companies offer discounts to communities and their policyholders who are proven to protect each other like the second County did?  Very shortly they will.

Lightcatch technology is here and it is proven to keep lives from being lost, vehicles from escaping at high speeds, criminals from getting away, and items from being stolen.  

People want to live in safe communities and have their loved ones safe.  Lightcatch can support your municipality by deliver a solution that is proven to stop property crime.  

Steps you can take right now

How are your friends and contacts helping protect your property? It's likely they can use Lightcatch to work together faster and easier.  Share it with people who live or work close to you.  Here is what one happy user said this week.

If you have a security system for your property add the Crime Blocker service so your security system can help protect your property as an incident is unfolding.

If you have property you want to protect we have Crime Blocker using  technology to protect your property much better.  Almost all rural properties we work with have significant deficiencies in how their property is protected.  Crime Blocker closes these gaps.

If a tragedy ever strikes and there is clear evidence the whole thing could have been avoided by having simple steps of prevention in place, like a free app for the community to use, some enterprising litigous law firm is going to sue.  Some insurance company is going to pursue this angle to avoid paying a large human tragedy claim.  Please don't tell the lawyers, it will happen soon enough.  

Media coverage of the missing ambulance.

Written by

Darren Boyer

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