A newly released hospital patient took Westchester County cops on a wild ride Tuesday, stealing an ambulance and leading police on a high-speed chase through a half-dozen towns.
Police said Ernest Burkett, 41, who had just been released from the emergency room at Montefiore New Rochelle Hospital, hopped behind the wheel of an Empress Ambulance at around 3 am and took off.
New Rochelle cops spotted the vehicle nearby by — and the chase was on.
“The pursuit led the ambulance into Eastchester, where the Eastchester Police
Department and Scarsdale Police attempted to stop the vehicle,” the department said in a release.
“The stolen vehicle collided with both Eastchester and Scarsdale police vehicles during the chase,” the statement said. “The ambulance then continued to evade capture, moving through Scarsdale, Greenburgh, White Plains, and eventually into Irvington.”
According Irvington police, the ambulance sped into the village shortly before 3:30 a.m., “failed to negotiate a curve” and slammed into a utility pole “and rolling over before coming to a rest.”
Burkett, who was by then pursued by a convoy of cops, was arrested and transported to the Westchester Medical Center with minor injuries, New Rochelle police said.
He was charged with reckless endangerment, criminal possession of stolen property, grand larceny, unlawful fleeing a police officer and criminal mischief, police said.
It was unclear what Burkett had been treated for in the emergency room.