AUSTIN (KXAN) — An ambulance stolen from a secured hospital is prompting security questions outside the Austin area’s main trauma emergency room.

The Austin-Travis County EMS ambulance was stolen from the ambulance port outside University Medical Center Brackenridge on Saturday morning. Medics were bringing a patient inside the hospital from the ambulance just before 9:30 a.m. They were notified that the ambulance was leaving shortly after entering the hospital.

Around 10:10 a.m., a state trooper noticed a possible stolen ambulance outside of the Austin area. The trooper then attempted to pull over the ambulance on US 190 eastbound near Lampasas County Road 4330. The driver in the ambulance refused to stop as it was entering Killeen. After 20 minutes, the ambulance stopped at Second Street and Avenue D where the suspect was taken into custody.

The Department of Public Safety arrested David Oliver III, 43, for the unauthorized use of a motor vehicle and evading arrest/detention with a motor vehicle. At last report, Oliver remains in Bell County Jail on $50,000 bond.

KXAN asked ATCEMS about its policies on locking ambulance doors and whether it is common practice to keep the ignition of an ambulance running when the vehicle is parked outside an emergency room. Representatives with ATCEMS said it would not be appropriate for them to comment on specific security policies and procedures for medics at the scene of a hospital or otherwise, being that they are internal to the agency and pertain to employee safety.

“However, yes, there are appropriate measures in place for our personnel that the department has put in place to ensure that security,” said Commander Mike Benavides, with the agency’s public information office. “These are isolated incidents. They don’t happen routinely. They do happen.”

ATCEMS reports the most recent ambulance theft occurred in the 1990s. That ambulance, we’re told, was also stolen from a hospital.

Benavides said the agency and its medics on scene collaborate with medical facilities they transport patients to and from with their personnel and their equipment. “The most important thing for our medics is to provide the security of their patient and the medical attention that they’re required.”

KXAN reached out to Seton Healthcare Family network of hospitals to request their policy about who secures an ambulance once medics are taking patients inside the hospital. We also asked the hospital group what company they contract with for hospital security.

Seton representatives responded only with this statement:

Seton strives to maintain a peaceful and safe environment for patients, visitors and employees. Seton provides security with a combination of in-house security officers and off-duty APD officers, and will intervene in criminal activity occurring on its premises whenever possible.”

Pertaining to Saturday’s theft, ATCEMS said the ambulance was towed from Killeen back to the area, not because it was incapable of being driven, but because it was stolen without supervision.

“It’s important for us — for the safety of the medics who have to get back on that ambulance — [that] it goes through a full and thorough inspection from the equipment that’s inside the vehicle, to all the actual maintenance and the mechanics of the vehicle, in order for us to ensure it’s safe to be put back on the streets.”

We also asked ATCEMS whether this ambulance theft has prompted any policy changes.

“To say that one isolated incident is going to create some sort of immediate and direct policy change, unless there’s some sort of safety concern that has been identified, but at this point, I don’t have any further information,” said Benavides. “But, we constantly look at our policies and our procedures and see what kind of things that we can do in order to make them more appropriate.”

No patients or medics were in the ambulance and no injuries were reported.

Benavides continued, “Times change and as times change, you know, you have to reevaluate your policies and procedures and that goes for any agency.”