WARREN — A Youngstown man pleaded guilty Monday to stealing an ambulance from St. Joseph Warren Hospital shortly after being discharged as a patient, then driving it some 20 miles before being stopped by police.

Nathan O. Queener, 40, of Orrin Avenue, entered the plea to a felony count of grand theft motor vehicle in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court before Judge Cynthia Westcott Rice. He will be sentenced following a background investigation.

Queener was arrested by Warren police Sept. 8 after the theft from St. Joe’s. According to a Warren police report, the incident occurred around 3 a.m. that morning when Queener took a Ford ambulance belonging to Physician’s Ambulance from the hospital’s ambulance bay. Surveillance video showed him walking out of the hospital’s main entrance with a blanket, heading to the bay and driving away in the vehicle.

Hospital employees discovered the ambulance missing upon returning from transporting a patient and alerted police. An employee tracked the vehicle’s location, which showed it heading toward Youngstown on Interstate 680, the report states.

Warren police coordinated with Youngstown and Struthers police departments. The ambulance was located after stopping briefly at a residence on Pointview Avenue in Youngstown.

Youngstown police stopped the vehicle on the Center Street Bridge around 3:30 a.m., identified Queener as the driver and took him into custody. The ambulance was recovered undamaged with no items missing.

Officers transported Queener to the Trumbull County jail, but staff there refused to accept him after he admitted to getting high in Youngstown following the theft, police said. He was then taken back to St. Joseph Warren Hospital for a medical evaluation.