An 81-year-old woman with mobility problems had her sole method of transportation stolen from right outside her apartment front door in West Quesnel this weekend.
Maude Wales kept her large red Shoprider mobility scooter locked to a metal loop in the hallway on the first floor of her apartment building on Lark Avenue.
When she peeked out her front door to check on it on Sunday afternoon, she was shocked to discover it was no longer there.
She called the police to report it missing but they had not arrived at the time of our interview on Monday morning.
“I’ve had it for about six years,” Wales said, “And I can’t get around without it. I can only walk a few feet, so I needed it to go out of the house.”
Wales, who has lived in Quesnel for 30 years, feels helpless.
“I don’t have any plans to replace it right now as I have no means to get it,” she said. “I live on my old age pension, which isn’t very much.
“I have phoned the Red Cross Loan Cupboard at the hospital to get a wheelchair,” Wales added, “but I am a very big person, so I need a very big wheelchair.
“They don’t have one available, so I am housebound until I can get something that will get me around.”
Wales has a few relatives in the area but they are more than half an hour’s drive away, so she worries about how she will attend to her errands or get outside for fresh air.
She said the act was a “rotten thing to do,” but her faith instructs her to forgive the thieves.
“I’ve asked the Lord to bless him,” she said, “or whoever it was that took it. They obviously needed it more than I did.”
ronan.odoherty@quesnelobserver.com
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