A Georgia man is in custody after stealing an ambulance from outside a Jennings hospital on Tuesday and taking it for a short drive before police caught up with him just north of Elton.

Jessie Ray Collins, 43, of Atlanta was charged with illegal possession of stolen things after he got into an unoccupied Acadian Ambulance parked at the Ochsner American Legion Hospital and drove off, only to be captured a few minutes later.

“The ambulance was apparently at the Jennings hospital when the guy got in it and took off,” Jeff Davis Parish Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Chris Ivey said. “He was in the hospital and had been released, but was just hanging around and the opportunity was there because they had left it running with the keys in it.”

Acadian Ambulance notified the sheriff’s office the ambulance had been stolen and was headed north on La. 26 near the Elton area, he said. A GPS tracker on the ambulance was used to help track the vehicle.

“From the time we got the call, to arresting him it was less than 10 minutes,” Ivey said. “It just so happened one of our deputies was coming to work and was in the area. Any other time all of our deputies would have been in the Jennings area and he would have been in the Kinder or Oberlin area before we could stop him.”

The deputy stopped the vehicle and took Collins into custody without incident, he said.

The ambulance was not damaged and was returned to Acadian Ambulance Service, according to Ivey.

Collins was arrested in April after he allegedly stole a vehicle in Jennings area and gave police a false name.