Our wheelchair van was stolen

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I am glad you at least have a plan but what a lot of stress and extra work! however, you 2 are expert at overcoming obstacles and doing it with grace. Wishing you a great Thanksgiving in spite of this!
 
Insurance wants to wait, so if van is recovered, they don't have to buy one. You don't have to take it back,despite what they say. Be sure if it is recovered, and you do take it back, to get it in writing a powertrain exemption. You dont know how they drove it, and if the engine or trans goes out soon after you take it back, the insurance will say oh well, otherwise...
 
Steve I can't believe someone would be so low as to steal a wheelchair van with a wheelchair inside. I hope they get what they deserve.

V
 
Steve I am so very sorry. I’m praying it gets recovered with everything intact. Wishing you a wonderful Thanksgiving despite this issue.
 
So sorry to hear that Steve. I don't often wish ALS on anyone but appropriate Karma would be he develops it. And then he thinks "at least I have a van." but he gets pulled over and sent to jail. And a cure for ALS is discovered but he is disqualified because everyone hates him. So instead he gets a reality TV show called ALS Apprentice to help him hire a care aid but he can never say " your fired" because they all quit first.

Probably won't happen though.
 
The. bastards! Until you get your wheels back use fire/ambulance to do transfers. Yes, call them 6 times a day if necessary. Surely insurance or some other healthcare agency can hook you up at least until it gets resolved. Try Team Gleason.

VIncent.
 
Here is a surprising update.

I don't do facebook, but my sister does. She put up a post and there were over 10,000 shares in less than 24 hours. The local news picked it up and then that story spread to many other news outlets.

My sister was inundated with responses, one of which was a picture of our van asking if that was it. They provided us the address, which was in
San Antonio and about a half hour drive from my sister.

We coordinated with police and arrived a couple of minutes before them. We were able to confirm it was our van and then turned it over to the police for processing. After about an hour, they turned it over to us and stayed with us until we could confirm it could still be driven.

There is some damage to the car, which insurance will assess on Friday. The car seems to drive OK. The wheelchair was still in the car, but the thieves had damaged it trying to get it out of the EZ Lock. It looks like the wheelchair motors are damaged, some of the structural bits are damaged, and the undercarriage is damaged (perhaps just the EZ Lock plate). It looks like a pry bar was involved in the attempts to extract the wheelchair.

Since getting back to my sister's, I have been able to get the wheelchair basically working and was able to confirm the wheelchair lift is working and that the EZ Lock can be made to work. We got the wheelchair out of the van and I was able to drive it a few hundred feet. The wheelchair will need substantial work and may not be economical to repair.

It is interesting to observe what the thieves took and what they left behind. They took the obvious expensive stuff like a spotting scope and high end binoculars. They left my $200 sunglasses and took a $30 pair. They also took the jumper cables and the Permobil charger, while leaving an aftermarket charger I carry along as a backup. They took three oxygen tanks along with the regulator, but left the garage remote.

They obviously went through it in a hurry, but thoroughly emptied all the storage compartments.

The speculation by police, et. al. is that the van was stolen to be used for human trafficking. Once the thieves realized it was a wheelchair van, they tried very hard to unload the wheelchair. When they were unable to do that, they hurriedly pilfered the contents and dumped the van. Who knows if this is really what happened, but that story sure fits the facts we know.

Going forward, we will have an insurance adjuster examine the van and will have it thoroughly inspected. We will need to have some damage repaired before we can head home. I will work with NuMotion to get an estimate repairing/replacing my F5 wheelchair.

The contents of the van are covered by our homeowner's policy. We should be able to get everything that we can remember was in the van and can prove we owned replaced under insurance (minus our deductible, of course).

This has been a big inconvenience and has taken a lot of time and energy to attend to. However, the outcome looks like it is going to be a bump in the road rather than the major financial catastrophe we were concerned about.

Thanks to everyone for your thoughts, your prayers, and your helpful suggestions.

The police were not directly responsible for finding our van. That was done through social media. It is amazing how many caring people surfaced offering help with a wheelchair, transportation, reward money, etc. We fortunately did not need to take anyone up on these offers but it restores my faith that much of humanity is good and descent.

Steve
 
So not right, good for you staying in top of of things and making some progress, that is true courage. No words for the people who would do this, unbelievable.
 
That is a chilling potential use for your van, Steve. I'm glad if the Permobil ruined their plans but not that it and the van were damaged in the process, and that you lost so many other items.

But as you say, it's also a reminder that most people are decent, and if presented with an opportunity to help, will do so.
 
Wow, what a story! I'm so glad you recovered the van at the very least.
 
There is a company called United Access that we bought our van from and they have rentals. They have a location in Denver and Colorado Springs.
 
Steve, I am thrilled that your van and wheelchair were recovered albeit a bit damage. What I love about this story is that it was the EZ-lock and Social Media that saved the day. I have to chuckle because if you know how to use the EZ-lock it truly is EZ and yet it’s what stumped the villains.

Praying you can get everything fixed and replaced w/o too much grief or expense.

hugs
 
Steve, bravo to your sister and all the people on FB who shared and offered assistance.

I'm glad you have your van back but so sorry it was an exhausting event that cut into your holiday.

Blessings and prayers,
Kim
 
We finished up our trip to Texas and are now back home. It has been a whirlwind of events trying to get the van and wheelchair well enough so they could make the trip home.

There was some obvious damage to the van. We took it to a collision shop, who told us due to it being a wheelchair van that it would take about a week to get an estimate and then one to two months to repair it. Knowing that we needed to drive home before an estimate could be prepared, they inspected it to make sure the body was safe to drive home.

I had noticed that the front wheels did not look right. The passenger-side tires had been rubbed up against a curb (or something) and the front wheels seemed to be pushed back a bit. The folks at the collision shop recommended a shop to look at the suspension issues.

Those folks quoted about $4,000 to fix just the steering/suspension components. Fortunately, only one item needed to be repaired before we could drive the van the thousand miles back to Colorado.

I consulted with my insurance company and they said any repairs I paid for before their estimate was done would NOT be reimbursed. I was surprised, but felt like I had no choice except to authorize the minimal repairs, which amounted to a bit less than $1,000.

They were able to complete the work on the Friday after Thanksgiving, so we had use of the van Saturday and Sunday in San Antonio. That meant we could take a trip to the Riverwalk. It is a touristy place, but it is where my wife and I spent our honeymoon 35 years ago, so is special to us. We had a spectacular evening!

To wrap up things with the van, we will be contacted by an insurance adjuster later this week to schedule a visit to estimate the damage. After that, the insurance company will let us know if they will declare it a total loss or repair it.

When we first recovered the van, the wheelchair was still locked in the EZ Lock. Unfortunately, the thieves had put a lot of effort (but not nearly as much thought) into removing the wheelchair from the van. If only they had known about the button that unlocks the EZ Lock:).

In their efforts to free the wheelchair from the EZ Lock, they did quite a bit of damage. At first, the wheelchair would not power on. After a bit of fiddling, we got it to where it would briefly power on. After a bit more fiddling, we got it to power on, but found that the controller was in the locked mode. Fortunately, I know how to unlock it, so we were easily able to get past that hurdle. Finally, after enough work, we got the wheelchair to where it would basically function.

The wheelchair now kind of limps along. It shuts down with a brake error periodically (over 30 brake errors since we recovered it). The front wheels are canted out way too much, various body parts look twisted and mangled, the joystick is twisted, and the right arm rest is damaged. They wore two holes in the carpet relentlessly trying to drive the wheelchair out of the EZ Lock.

I am a bit concerned that insurance will decide it is cost effective to repair (vs replace) and that afterwards we will spend a couple of years trying to make it reliable. I am kind of hoping the damage is substantial enough that it will be declared a total loss. I feel bad for thinking that, but it is my reality. We will see.

I will drop the wheelchair off at NuMotion on Monday for evaluation.

For now, it is great to be home. It will take me awhile to recover from this latest trip.

I can't believe how many wonderful people popped up who made this whole situation so much better. Just as an example, when we took the van to the collision place in San Antonio, the estimator walked out the door, looked at the van, and then exclaimed, "hey, I saw this van on facebook! So glad you got it back". He took really good care of us!

Steve
 
Oh, Steve. I'm glad you made it back and join you in hoping they declare the chair totaled.

Good thing you know a lot about vans and chairs.
 
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