A DISABLED man was left devastated when he woke up to find his wheelchair had been stolen from outside his Redditch home.
Christopher Cooper, of St George’s Road, discovered the wheelchair was missing on Sunday (July 3) when his sons arrived to take him out.
The 65-year-old suffers from progressive supranuclear palsy, which effects balance, speech and general movement, and relies heavily on the wheelchair to get out of his bungalow.
The chair was found on Tuesday (July 5) in Lakeside and a good Samaritan returned it to the family. But it has a tyre missing and damage to the straps leaving it currently unusable.
Mr Cooper’s sister, Patricia Hardy, said he had been isolated since it happened. He has been limited to short trips to the local shops because he could not venture any further without a working wheelchair.
She said: “It is just horrendous that someone would take a wheelchair.
“They obviously had no thought for what it would do or the consequences.
“Even though we have had it back we can’t use it and Chris is still stuck unable to really go anywhere.
“It is so important that he has access to his wheelchair.
“Someone has taken the tyre of one of the wheels which really takes some strength to pull off.
“We are hoping to get the wheelchair fixed but we don’t even know how long that will take.
“Someone has called to say they might have one to donate so fingers crossed we will have one, one way or another, soon.”
