Robert, wheelchair theft victim: 'I couldn't imagine that someone could steal from a disabled person'
The man, who has spinal cord injuries that severely affect his mobility, left the wheelchair for a few minutes outside the lift to take his shopping bags home
Robert is 42 years old and has lived two different lives. One before 2022, during which he earned five professional qualifications, learned to speak four languages, was a sportsman and worked hard at whatever challenge was put before him. And one after 2022, when a bypass operation ended with complications that required another two operations in five days, leaving him with severe spinal cord injuries and in permanent pain.
For the last three years, Robert, who lives in Las Lagunas (Mijas) with his mother and sister, has needed a motorised wheelchair to get around. This gives him some independence in the harsh reality that he has to live with.
However, he lost that little independence on 21 November, when an unscrupulous thief stole the wheelchair from the lift landing of the building where Robert lives.
It happened around 7.30pm. Robert had just arrived home. He left his chair by the lift door and went upstairs to leave the shopping bags at home. He can hardly walk because his spinal cord injury causes him terrible neuropathic pain. "My back muscles don't work and I can hardly move," he said.
Walking a few steps from the lift to his flat is a great challenge. After leaving the bags in the flat, he stopped to rest and recover from the pain of the effort. "It only took me half an hour to go down to get the chair," he said. To his surprise, the wheelchair was no longer outside the lift.
Robert says that it didn't even cross his mind that a thief might have taken it. "I couldn't imagine that someone could steal from a disabled person. That's worse than a scoundrel," he said. That's why he went to the president of the homeowners in his building, thinking that a neighbour might have moved it because it was in the way.
When he saw the images from the security camera installed on the landing, he realised how wrong he was. The video shows a young man, around 25 years old, in the process of stealing the wheelchair, after which he leaves the building with it. He is wearing a cap and hiding his face. The video has been given to the Guardia Civil alongside Robert's report.
Robert and his family have a difficult problem to solve. The wheelchair was fitted with a Handbike-Wella motor which cost him more than 4,000 euros. He lives solely on his pension. His case might ring a bell - in July this year, 27-year-old María José had her wheelchair stolen in Malaga. These two incidents point to the possibility of there being a black market for motorised wheelchairs.
