A big scene was made in Utica last summer when a Buffalo-area woman stole an ambulance right from the garage of Kunkel Ambulance on Catherine Street in Utica and led police on a high-speed chase all the way to Rochester. Today, she pled guilty in court for second degree grand larceny.

Vanessa Armstead has just been released from St. Elizabeth's following a car crash when she took it upon herself to hop in the ambulance, and drive off.

According to the Oneida County District Attorney's Office, Armstead entered her plea in Oneida County Court Thursday and will be sentenced in August to three to nine years in prison. She will also have to execute a confession of judgment for the value of the financial loss Kunkel sustained in the theft.

In case you aren't aware, a second-degree grand larceny charge is applicable when the property is valued at $50,000 or more.

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State Police Dispatchers say around 10:42AM on June 13, 2021, State Police on the Thruway made their first attempt stop ambulance on the highway. The driver refused to comply with the demand and pull over. They ended that attempt.

For a second time, Troopers located the stolen ambulance on I-490 westbound in Rochester and tried to pull the driver over as they exited I-490 at Culver Road, they said. That attempt was also ended.

The driver went down Seneca Road in Irondequoit, a suburb of Rochester, and crashed through a gate into the Irondequoit Bay from the boat launch. State Police say the operator of the ambulance was able to swim to a boat on the nearby bay and was then taken into custody by police. She was the only one on the ambulance.