A Whitewater man is charged with taking and driving an ambulance from the Whitewater Police Department and crashing it while drunk.
Andrew Allen Dufek, 21, was charged July 2 in Walworth County Circuit Court with burglary of a building or dwelling and operating a motor vehicle without the owner’s consent.
According to the criminal complaint, an ambulance was seen driving around downtown Whitewater with no headlights or taillights on at about 1:50 a.m. June 26 and then parking in the lot of Second Salem, which was closed, with the engine running. An officer also heard tires squeal and the sound of a crash, the complaint contends.
The officer saw Dufek stumbling out from the back patio area of Second Salem with no shirt on, and Dufek appeared highly intoxicated, according to the complaint. Dufek denied driving the ambulance, which had a bent mirror with the glass missing from it, the complaint states. The missing glass was found on the road near a sign that was knocked down in the 100 block of Whitewater Street, and an ambulance was missing from a bay at the Whitewater rescue department, according to the complaint.
A gray T-shirt and an iPhone, which Dufek later admitted were his, were found near the area where the ambulance had been parked, the complaint states.
Surveillance video showed Dufek walk to the police department sally port, bang on the door several times, walk over to the ambulance bay and enter through a small door near the police station, according to the complaint. Shortly after Dufek enters the building, an ambulance is seen driving out of the building and west on Forest Street, the complaint contends.
