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Stolen Electric Wheelchair Returned

POSTED: 11:46 am PDT October 8, 2008
UPDATED: 10:09 am PDT October 9, 2008

Police said they're still searching for two teens who were caught on camera stealing a woman's electric wheelchair on Oct. 2 after they sold it to a man who returned it Wednesday.

Pamela Prather, 44, reported to Gresham police that someone stole her red Jazzy Jet 3 Ultra Power Chair while she was shopping at the Volunteers of America store at about 6:15 p.m. in the 2300 block of Southeast 182nd Street.

FOX 12 aired a news report Wednesday afternoon about the theft and about a half hour later Carey Christopher Center, 38, of Portland contacted FOX 12 and said he'd bought a similar chair from a teen three days earlier.

He said he had seen two juveniles riding around on the wheelchair near Safeway at Southeast 162nd Avenue and Southeast Division Street on Sunday.

The teens asked Center if he wanted to buy the wheelchair and he needed a wheelchair for a relative in poor health, so he bought it from them for $75, police said.

When Center saw the news story about the stolen wheelchair, he went to the Volunteers of America store to return it to the owner. Police were able to return the wheelchair to Prather after talking to Center.

A FOX 12 reporter checked the serial number on the chair Center bought and it matched the one stolen from Prather.

Police said they're still looking for the two boys who sold the wheelchair to Center.

No one saw the theft occur, but officers arrived and viewed the surveillance camera from the store, which showed two boys who looked about 13 years old taking the chair, police said.

Prather said she had parked her wheelchair just inside the door of the Volunteers of America store to shop, and when she returned, it was gone.

"I was so sad. I was just so sad that it happened," Prather said.

Prather was upset because without her motorized wheelchair she was stuck in her southeast Portland trailer park.

"It means everything to me. I can't go anywhere. I can't even do laundry or go to the store -- nowhere," Prather said.

Prather's health is failing, she needs a new liver and she can't walk because of complications from diabetes she's in constant pain and has lots of important doctor's appointments.

After her wheelchair was stolen she couldn't make it to those appointments.

The stolen motorized wheelchair costs anywhere from $3,000 to $5,000 new.

The boy who got into the chair and operated it as it left the store was described as white, about 5 feet tall with a thin build and short brown hair. At the time of the theft he was wearing black and white tennis shoes, dark jeans and a baggy white shirt.

Stolen Electric Wheelchair Returned To Woman

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