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San Patricio deputies had a busy weekend handling fires, stolen ambulances and emergency landings

When officers responded to the plane crash that kicked things off Sunday morning, a patrol unit caught on fire and was deemed a total loss.

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — The San Patricio County Sheriff's Office had a hectic Sunday, dealing with a plane crash, a patrol unit on fire and a stolen ambulance.

Deputies were also called in to help with the arrest of 41-year-old Blaise Hermsen of California, who was arrested for taking the ambulance.

The vehicle reportedly was taken after a patient was delivered to a Physicians PremiER in Corpus Christi. It, and Hermsen, were later found just north of Odem, where he was arrested.

Sunday morning, a single-engine aircraft lost power just before attempting to land at the McCampbell-Porter Airport in Ingleside, but was able to make an emergency landing in a pasture 300 ft. from the runway. 

The plane's landing gear and propeller were badly damaged, but fortunately, no one was injured. 

As deputies responded to that crash, though, one of the sheriff's office's patrol units went up in flames. San Patricio County Sheriff Oscar Rivera posted that, as a deputy responded to the emergency, he drove his patrol unit through the dry pasture.

"In doing so, his unit’s HOT catalytic converter caught the grass & his unit on fire," he wrote. "Ingleside Fire was already headed to the airport and extinguished our unit but it was a total loss."

No one was injured in the emergency landing or the fire. 

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