A Portsmouth man is accused of stealing an ambulance.
Paul Laparle was arraigned Thursday in Newport District Court and released on personal recognizance.
Police said Laparle was waiting to see a doctor at Newport Hospital on Wednesday night, when he jumped in the ambulance and took off.
Rescue workers from the Middletown Fire Department had left the ambulance running while they were inside the hospital with a patient.
The rescue vehicle was found a short time later. It had been abandoned on the lawn of a condo complex on Oakland Farm Road in Portsmouth.
Laparle was arrested at his home a few blocks away.
Authorities said the town was lucky there were no emergencies during the time the ambulance was missing.
"It left the town of Middletown without any emergency service transportation, and two firefighters stranded at the hospital for what was probably at least a half an hour," Newport police Sgt. Russell Hayes told NBC 10. "It could have been catastrophic for someone in Middletown who sustained any kind of medical emergency."
The vehicle was inspected and returned to the Middletown Fire Department.
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