Swindlers with sirens caught making money from patients

Moscow police have arrested two people suspected of posing as commercial ambulance operators. They were using a decommissioned ambulance to beat traffic lights and transport paying patients to hospital quickly.

­It turned out the men, aged 27 and 18, had no medical training and not even driving licenses. This, however, did not prevent them from entering hospital grounds in an old ambulance they had bought and distributing their ads.

As a result, the team managed to make 2,000-3,000 rubles a day. In total, they “worked” in this way for over a month – until a local doctor unmasked them.

Moscow's notorious daily gridlock has long inspired some inventive but ethically dubious business strategies that get commuters from point A to point B.

As government and emergency vehicles still have a slight traffic advantage, dozens of “private medical centers” popped up offering Muscovites quick ambulance rides at a cost of approximately $180.