Documents: Ambulance theft suspect was just released from ER

HILO — A 24-year-old Hilo man accused of stealing an ambulance Friday afternoon from Hilo Medical Center had just been discharged from the emergency room when the vehicle was taken, according to court documents filed by police.

It’s unknown why Maksim Stasyuk was at the hospital. Police said the emergency vehicle, worth about $100,000, was swiped from the ER entrance. The ambulance, owned by American Medical Response, was recovered on Leilani Street near the Hilo landfill less than an hour later.

Police Lt. Miles Chong said the keys were in the vehicle when it was taken.

According to police, the ambulance crashed through a locked gate belonging to the state Department of Land and Natural Resources, causing about $2,000 damage to the gate and less than $500 damage to the rear bumper of the ambulance.

An AMR official said no equipment or supplies were taken from the ambulance.

Stasyuk pranced in and out of the courtroom during his initial appearance Monday on charges of first-degree theft and third- and fourth-degree property damage, smiling, sticking his tongue out and mugging.

Deputy Public Defender Austin Hsu requested Stasyuk be freed on supervised release or that his $36,000 bail be reduced, noting that one property damage charge is a misdemeanor and the other a petty misdemeanor.

Deputy Prosecutor Glenn Shiigi asked that bail be maintained, telling Hilo District Judge Michael Udovic that Stasyuk “endangered the public by taking that ambulance out of service for the period that he had that ambulance in his possession.”

Udovic reduced Stasyuk’s bail to $25,000 and ordered him to return for a preliminary hearing at 2 p.m. today.

Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.