MESA, AZ — A man has been arrested after allegedly stealing a Mesa police vehicle from a hospital parking lot Wednesday.
According to police, 32-year-old Raudel Cardenas spotted a fully marked Mesa police vehicle in the parking lot of a Banner Hospital near Dobson Road and Southern Avenue. Cardenas opened the car door, noticed the keys were still in the vehicle and allegedly stole it.
Cardenas was later arrested after he was seen by an officer exiting the vehicle in the area of Country Club Drive and Southern Avenue.
According to court paperwork, after he was detained, Cardenas told the officer that he took the vehicle so he could “go home.”
Cardenas faces one count of theft of a means of transportation.
