Florida man races ambulance from hospital, gets it stuck in mud. He wasn’t a paramedic
Trey Allen Cornwell jumped into the ambulance and took off from the hospital grounds.
Sounds routine. Except for one thing.
According to Hernando County deputies, Cornwell was not a paramedic and he had no business in that ambulance that had parked outside the Oak Hill Hospital in Brooksville, about an hour’s drive north of Tampa.
“The ambulance crew was inside the hospital dropping off a patient when the ambulance was stolen,” deputies said on Sunday, April 4, after Cornwell, 29, was arrested and charged with grand theft auto.
After driving the ambulance to the Kass Circle area off of Port Court, Cornwell got the emergency vehicle stuck in mud and sand near a lake in a woodsy area off of the road, according to the Hernando deputies’ report.
Cornwell bailed and ran to a nearby shopping center where he was captured by officers, according to Hernando deputies.
He was booked into Hernando County Detention Center and held on a $10,000 bond.
Cornwell’s court records include previous arrests and charges dating back to September 2004, when he was a minor and picked up for having tobacco while underage. Subsequent charges in 2011 include burglary, retail theft and assault with a deadly weapon — the latter of which netted Cornwell a six-month jail sentence for which he served over two months.
Cornwell was also convicted on battery charges in 2018 and, in February 2021, charged with battery after he was accused of striking a woman. He pleaded not guilty on March 5.
