NEW ORLEANS - The Quicky's convenience store in Mid-City takes its parking lot rules seriously. Very seriously.
About 4 p.m. Friday, New Orleans paramedics rushed inside the store for a man with a life-threatening medical issue.
They worked on the patient with chest pain, put him inside the vehicle, then started to speed off.
The paramedics heard a loud noise, and the vehicle came to a screeching halt, according to Jeb Tate, spokesman for New Orleans Emergency Medical Services.
The medics stepped out and found a boot on their ambulance.
Convenience store employees allegedly put a restrictive parking boot on the ambulance. And now it was stuck.
The paramedics were perplexed.
Tate said the ambulance had its emergency lights on the whole time.
Store employees didnt want to talk about it. They declined requests for comment.
Apparently one of the employees took the boot off. The tire was left flat.
And so the paramedics and the man with the emergency waited.
We actually had to delay that patient's care by calling another ambulance out here to come transport this patient, Tate said.
Signs on the convenience store make clear that parking is for customers only. The signs state: If you leave the property for any reason your vehicle will be booted.
But the paramedics apparently were there the whole time tending to a man with chest pains.
We called the telephone number on the sign, for the Boot Man.
A convenience store employee picked up, then hung up.
Tate, the EMS spokesman, said the agency has never had an incident like this before.
"As long as we have our lights on, we park where it is safe to park, he added.
