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Michigan man who posed as medic had history of lying

FILE - This undated file booking photo provided by the Kent County Jail in Grand Rapids, Mich., shows Tony Fortuna, who is nearing the end of his nine months in Kent County Jail after being sentenced sentenced in May 2018 for impersonating an ambulance driver. Police say Fortuna injected and administered medications during a two-day stint with American Medical Response in January. Records show that Fottuna had a history of lying. (Kent County Jail via AP, File)

HOLLAND, Mich. (AP) — Court records show that a Michigan man who will soon finish a county jail sentence for impersonating an ambulance medic had a history of lying.

Tony Fortuna, 42, is nearing the end of his nine months in Kent County Jail, The Detroit News reported . He was sentenced in May for impersonating a Grand Rapids ambulance medic.

Fortuna received permission to be on an ambulance ride-along and helped load patients. He falsely told American Medical Response he was a former medical transportation company employee, according to police.

Fortuna injected and administered medications during a two-day stint with the ambulance service, according to police.

A supervisor became suspicious and found that Fortuna didn’t have a paramedic license.

“(The paramedic) went on to explain how it felt strange that Fortuna was fumbling on things that an experienced medic should be (able to do),” Grand Rapids Officer Gregg Arsenault wrote in the police report.

Fortuna said he’s done similar things with paramedic services in Mount Pleasant, New Mexico and New York, but ambulance services in those locations have no record of him working there.

“I’m always going 100 miles per hour,” Fortuna said. “That’s a lot of the problem. I act before I think. If I just slowed down and thought before I acted.”

The January incident occurred just four months after he’d finished serving a five-year prison sentence for making false statements to federal agents, according to court records. Fortuna had told the FBI that he had information about phony bomb plots in an attempt to lessen time he was to serve for other fraud-related convictions.

Fortuna has been convicted of impersonating a uniformed officer, petty larceny, forging checks, credit card fraud, receiving stolen goods and falsely obtaining services, according to records.

“I don’t know if I get bored and want something to do, if I want action or the thrill of it,” Fortuna said. “I really can’t explain that there.”

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