Terror threat
My new unit chief told us this little gem: Once, he needed to switch ambulances mid-shift in Vancouver. He parked the old one behind St. Paul’s hospital, hid the keys, and went on his way. The next morning, the crew that would normally have picked up the same car found it missing from the station, and not believing the ridiculous story about it being parked behind St. Paul’s, reported it stolen. The man who started the whole thing happened to drive past the hospital, and wondered why most of the VPD had descended on the block. Getting out to ask, he discovered that an ambulance had been stolen, found, and deemed a bomb threat. Why park an ambulance behind a hospital if not to blow it up? The bomb squad was on the point of blowing the car up preemptively when he strode in and defused the situation. The moral of the story: be careful where you park on the evening of September 10.