San Antonio police said no one was hurt after the unit was tracked across the city and recovered.
SAN ANTONIO, TX — A 30-year-old woman was arrested Wednesday after police said she stole an ambulance in downtown San Antonio while two medics and a patient were inside during a medical call.
Police said the episode began during a response near East Commerce Street and South St. Mary’s Street, a busy downtown area near offices, hotels and riverfront foot traffic. The ambulance had stopped for a person who was feeling unwell. As the crew worked in the back of the unit, police said, the woman got into the driver’s seat and drove away. The case quickly drew a response from patrol officers and the San Antonio Police Department’s Eagle helicopter unit.
First responders were called at about 10:30 a.m. to the Wells Fargo area near East Commerce and South St. Mary’s streets, police said. Medics were loading or treating a 65-year-old man in the back of the ambulance when the woman entered the front cab. Police said she closed the glass partition between the driver’s area and the patient compartment before driving off. The medics and patient remained inside as the ambulance left downtown. Police said the ambulance was not being driven by a crew member at that point.
The stolen unit traveled away from downtown as officers worked to track it. Police requested help from Eagle, the department’s helicopter unit, which followed the ambulance from above for about 20 minutes. The ambulance traveled nearly 22 miles before it was stopped and recovered near Military Drive and U.S. Highway 90, police said. The woman was taken into custody at that location. Authorities said the patient and the two medics were not injured. Police did not report any crash tied to the stolen ambulance.
The woman’s name had not been released by police Wednesday afternoon. Officers said she could face three counts of kidnapping and one count of vehicle theft, based on the three people who were inside the ambulance when it was driven away. It was not immediately clear whether formal charges had been filed in court by Wednesday evening. Police also had not released a suspected motive. Investigators were still reviewing how the woman reached the driver’s seat and whether any other people tried to stop her before the ambulance left the scene.
The case placed a spotlight on a high-risk part of emergency medical work. San Antonio Fire Department ambulances function as mobile treatment rooms, carrying equipment and trained staff to handle medical calls across the city. In this case, the patient was already under the care of medics when the unit was taken. Police said the crew remained with the patient throughout the episode. No injury was reported, but the incident interrupted a medical response and forced officers to treat the ambulance as both an emergency vehicle and a stolen vehicle.
San Antonio has seen other ambulance theft cases in recent years, though police did not say Wednesday’s case was connected to any earlier incident. In 2020, a woman was accused of stealing a San Antonio Fire Department ambulance from a downtown hospital and leaving it nearby. In 2024, police recovered a stolen commercial ambulance on the city’s West Side after it was found parked outside a home. Those cases involved different facts and suspects, but each raised concerns about access to emergency vehicles while crews are working around hospitals, homes and public streets.
Police said the investigation remained open Wednesday. Detectives were expected to review statements from the medics, the patient and any witnesses near the downtown call location. They also were expected to examine vehicle tracking data, radio traffic and any available surveillance video from nearby businesses or city cameras. The next public step would likely come through booking records, charging documents or an updated police statement. As of Wednesday afternoon, officials had not announced a news conference or released a detailed arrest report.
The downtown scene returned to normal after the ambulance was recovered, but the incident left a sharp break in an otherwise routine medical call. A patient who had called for help ended up in the middle of a police response, and two medics continued their work while the vehicle moved across the city. Police said the most important outcome was that all three people inside the ambulance were safe.
As of Wednesday, July 8, the woman remained in custody, police said, and investigators were still determining the final charges and timeline for the case.
Author note: Last updated July 8, 2026.