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HOUSTON — They're the brave men and women you call when you need them most but last weekend, they were taken advantage of in a way the Houston Fire Department said it hasn't seen before.
A pair of thieves targeted a fire truck while firefighters were helping a resident who was having a medical emergency.
The crime was caught on surveillance video. It happened Saturday near the intersection of Little York Road and Hollister Street. The neighbor who noticed what was happening asked KHOU 11 News to conceal her identity.
"I didn't think anything of it until they got out and they were checking out the fire truck," she said. "I couldn’t believe that people like that exist in Houston. I have never heard of anything happening like this before."
A car with paper plates starting with "720" was seen pulling into a parking spot near the fire truck. Two people get out of the car, open up one of the compartments on the fire truck and steal two gas-powered rescue saws. They then left in the dark-colored car.
The fire department said the saws are life-saving equipment that's essential for crews to use when extracting people from mangled vehicles and they're also used to get inside burning buildings.
It's the first time an HFD spokesperson said they can remember something like this happening.
"This is the first I have ever heard of something like this happening. It's ... disgraceful. Our firefighters are out there working hard trying to save people's lives and the last thing we want to do is someone taking our life-saving equipment," Houston Fire Department Public Information Officer Marte Black said. "These saws are integral to our operations. (It's) A tragedy this would happen."
It could end up costing taxpayers $4,000 to replace the saws but HFD said it has backups they can use for the time being.
HFD filed a police report with the Houston Police Department and they're asking the public to be on the lookout for the thieves and the saws, which have a "Fire Station 4" marking on them.
Anyone with information is asked to contact the police or Crime Stoppers.
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