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Woman's Wheelchair Stolen And Destroyed

GRIDLEY (CBS13) -- A wheelchair was stolen from a severely disabled woman and destroyed, and now she might not be able to get a new one.

On a hot summer day you can find Gail sitting under the tree in her daughter's front yard. But now, the Gridley woman has no choice but to stay put.

Gail can barely walk.

"She has diabetic ulcers on both legs. She's pretty crippled," said her daughter.

Her electric wheelchair was destroyed in a rollover crash.

"There were wheelchair pieces everywhere," she said.

Last Friday, Gail and her family were driving on Highway 113 near Woodland. They were returning home from a day at the theme park. At around 10:30, they noticed a problem with the toe-hitch connecting the trailer connecting Gail's wheelchair to their car.

The family says a CHP officer helped them lock the truck before leaving to go to a safe place. But when they returned a few hours later, the trailer and the wheelchair were gone.

"We thought we must have missed it in the dark," said Gail.

But what the family didn't miss were the police lights and sirens less than a mile down the road. When they drove by, they saw pieces of the wheelchair all over the road.

"There was my wheelchair all over the place. I think it was probably one of the worst moments of my life," said Gail.

The CHP says an intoxicated Woodland man had somehow attached the locked trailer to his vehicle and took off with it. He got less than a mile before his truck and the trailer flipped over.

"I don't know what we're going to do about it," said Gail. "I know my insurance ain't gonna want to pay for it again."

"She's just stranded," said her daughter.

For now, Gail will just have to sit and wait.

The suspect faces charges of grand theft, driving under the influence and driving without a license. He was well enough to be taken out of the hospital and booked into the Yolo County Jail.

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