Idaho Woman Arrested for Stealing Ambulance, Deliberately Crashing It Into Homeland Security Office
Police have arrested an Idaho woman on multiple charges, including stealing an ambulance. After allegedly taking the ambulance, she then deliberately crashed it into a Meridian office building that houses the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
She wasn’t finished there, though. The woman also then allegedly attempted to set it on fire. Yes, she had herself quite a day… allegedly.
On Monday night, the Meridian Police Department announced that they had taken a 43-year-old Idaho woman into custody for allegedly driving a stolen ambulance into a building housing Department of Homeland Security offices. Authorities described it as a “attempt to burn” it. Fortunately, police reported there were no injuries.
The authorities accuse the woman of taking a Canyon County Paramedics ambulance from outside the St. Luke’s Hospital Emergency Center in Meridan at around 11 p.m. on February 18, driving it through the building’s entryway, spilling gasoline on the lobby floor, and then running away on foot.
It’s almost like she wanted to be caught
Security camera stills from a Walmart in Meridian earlier that night depict the woman buying two red gasoline cans. She also purchased lighter fluid at the self-checkout register. A receipt dated 9:17 p.m. that evening lists the products.
Footage captured at a station later that evening allegedly shows the woman pumping gasoline into the two cans just before the collision. According to the arrest affidavit, she registered a rewards card used for the purchase in her name.
Minutes after the ambulance hit the building, a Meridian police dash camera allegedly showed the suspect walking across the street. Later, surveillance footage captured her getting into a pickup truck and leaving the scene.
The Associated Press reported that the woman’s Facebook page included a post depicting an AI-generated image of the White House on fire. The caption stated, “If it can be destroyed by the truth, then it should be destroyed; it was built on lies anyway.”
Police charged her charged with attempted destruction of federal property by fire and malicious destruction of property used in or affecting interstate commerce by fire. Each offense carries a potential penalty of five to 20 years in prison, fines, or both.
The Meridian Police Chief spoke about the investigation and subsequent arrest
“These investigators literally went door-to-door, looking for possible camera footage, possible witnesses and other information and evidence,” Meridian Police Chief Tracy Basterrechea said during a news conference announcing the arrest.
“The suspect took that ambulance and drove it into the Portico North building, where they had also staged gasoline and poured gasoline inside of the ambulance as well as on the floor, outside of the ambulance, in what we believe was an attempt to burn the building,” Basterrechea added.
Idaho State Police and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives assisted in the investigation.
