Thanks to a security camera, Cortez police have recovered a duffle bag containing more than $2,000 worth of drugs and emergency equipment that was stolen from an ambulance at Southwest Memorial Hospital early Saturday, Cortez Assistant Police Chief Russ Johnson said Monday.

Authorities are now waiting for a warrant to arrest the male suspect.

The suspect and a female companion had come to the emergency room at approximately 2 a.m., Johnson said, purportedly so the woman could be treated for some undefined ailment.

A short time later, a member of the ambulance crew noticed the bag, which a routine inventory had placed in the ambulance at the last shift change, missing and called police.

Police then reviewed a video surveillance tape from the hospital and observed the suspect wandering outside to where the ambulances are parked, where he then removed the bag and placed it in his vehicle.

Although police weren’t able to identify the suspect from the tape, Johnson said, they used it and hospital records to locate the woman later that morning. The woman told them that the bag could be recovered from a residence at Rust Trailer Park, Johnson said.

According to a list provided to police, the stolen items included a gluco-meter, which costs approximately $1,000, and other emergency equipment as well as numerous drugs that are used in life-threatening situations, such as cases of drug overdose and insulin shock.

Johnson said police were looking for the suspect, but declined to identify him until a felony arrest warrant is issued by District Attorney Mike Green. Green said Monday he hadn’t yet seen the results of the police investigation and wasn’t sure when a warrant would be issued.