State Police have identified the woman who stole an ambulance in Utica Sunday and drove it into Irondequoit Bay as 32-year-old Vanessa Armstead of Buffalo. She’s been charged with Criminal Possession of Stolen Property 2nd Degree, Criminal Trespass 3rd Degree, and 2 counts of Criminal Mischief 2nd Degree. Utica police charged her separately with burglary and grand larceny.
Utica Police say Armstead had been in a car crash on the Thruway a day earlier, on Saturday, and was treated at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in Utica. She was released on Sunday, and went to the Utica railroad station, but then went to the Kunkel Ambulance Service building and stole a rig that was being cleaned out after a shift.
Police tracked the stolen ambulance with GPS with State Police in pursuit as she drove west toward Buffalo, refusing orders to pull over. She eventually made her way down I-490 from Victor to Rochester, got onto Seneca Avenue in Irondequoit, and crashed the ambulance into Irondequoit Bay at the Newport Yacht Club. A boater rescued her as she climbed out of the sinking ambulance.
Her motive for doing all this is still unknown.