Benjamin L. Feltz, 38, of Stevens Point was sentenced Oct. 29 in Wood County court to seven years of probation for stealing a Wisconsin Rapids ambulance with a patient inside and leading officers on a high-speed chase toward Pittsville.
Feltz pleaded no contest to first-degree recklessly endangering safety and third-offense operating while intoxicated. Under the plea agreement, additional charges — including threatening an officer, taking a vehicle without consent, fleeing an officer, lewd and lascivious behavior, obstructing rescue workers, disorderly conduct, driving with a revoked license and tampering with an ignition interlock device — were dismissed but read in at sentencing.
Wood County Circuit Judge Nicholas Brazeau Jr. ordered Feltz to undergo any counseling deemed necessary, pay restitution and have no contact with the victim. Feltz had been in jail since his Feb. 17 arrest, a stretch his attorney put at 254 days, and prosecutors and the defense jointly recommended the probation sentence.
According to the criminal complaint, the incident began the evening of Feb. 17 after a caller reported a naked man doing pushups near railroad tracks on 21st Avenue South in Wisconsin Rapids. Two fire department employees were in the back of an ambulance in the 1400 block of 22nd Avenue South with a patient when they heard the front door close and saw a nude man with long hair in the driver's seat. One employee got out and tried to remove him, the other jumped out as the ambulance moved, and the patient — a 50-year-old Wisconsin Rapids woman — was left alone in the back. She was not injured.
The complaint says the ambulance drove through the Cranberry Creek landfill property on dirt roads, avoided spike strip attempts, and headed north on State 73 toward Pittsville at speeds over 90 mph. A Pittsville officer's spike strip deflated the tires, but the ambulance kept going until it left the road near Wood County X and became stuck in mud in a cornfield, ending a chase of more than 18 miles. Officers pulled Feltz from the vehicle, and he told them he had consumed a chemical cleaner and might have marijuana in his system.
