'I stole an ambulance': Quitman woman in hospital gown arrested in traffic

QUITMAN, Texas (KLTV) - Quitman police arrested an emergency room patient Tuesday after they say she stole an ambulance. According to a Quitman police affidavit, the incident began when UT Health staff alerted officers of an unattended patient who had left the emergency room. The woman had a Wood County Sheriff’s Office emergency detention warrant, they said, and an officer began to head towards the hospital. While on his way, the officer said he was alerted that the woman, later identified as Ruby Diane Alston, 51, of Quitman, had driven away from the hospital in an ambulance. The officer said he spotted the ambulance, occupied only by Alston, in the 100 block of East Goode Street. The document said he approached the ambulance, at which point Alston exited the vehicle into busy traffic, approached the officer, and said, “I stole an ambulance.” While placing Alston in handcuffs, the officer noted that she was wearing a gown and had an IV access site in her arm. Alston remains in the Wood County Jail on a charge of theft of property with a $30,000 bond.