I don’t say this often . . . but I’m totally on the criminal’s side on this one.

There’s a 37-year-old guy named Todd Shell from Mesa, Arizona, and he was hospitalized on Tuesday with a heat-related issue.

The high in Mesa on Tuesday afternoon was 115.

And when he was discharged, he didn’t have a ride home . . . and considering that he’d JUST been in the hospital because of the insane heat, he didn’t want to walk home.

So . . . he stole an ambulance.

The cops quickly tracked him down and pulled him over.  And he explained his heat issues, and he said he was just going to buy a sandwich, then head home, and then eventually he was going to return the ambulance.

He was arrested for unlawful use of transportation.  Sure hope the jail is air conditioned.

(ABC 15 – Phoenix