CLEVELAND — Linda Wiseman has depended on a wheelchair for more than a decade. Her most recent, an electric wheelchair worth about $10,000, was stolen from her front yard on Sept. 30.
"My roommate came out and he said it was gone,” Wiseman said. “Since then, I've been like a prisoner of my own home."
She fears someone may have scrapped it. Cleveland Police have assigned a detective to the case.
"It's my freedom from the house. It's my trip to the store,” Wiseman said. “It's my everything. I rely on it."
Wiseman, who lives on W. 46th St., showed News 5 photographs taken from a security at a neighboring home. She said it captured a man coming into the yard, unplugging the wheelchair from an extension cord and leaving with it.
"It shows the young man walking from West 46 and Bush up this way,” Wiseman said. “Then it shows him standing out front looking, and then it shows him walking up, taking the tarp up and riding off in it."
Wiseman said she’s lived in the W. 46th St. home for about 14 years and has parked wheelchairs in the front yard with few problems.
“Somebody might ask, why is your electric wheelchair in the front yard?” News 5’s Damon Maloney asked Wiseman.
“Because I can’t afford a ramp,” she said. “I couldn’t afford a ramp; that’s why it’s gone.”
She’s angry that someone would stoop so low. She said her jacket and slippers were on the wheelchair and are now gone, too.
“I can't imagine somebody putting this on someone who needs it. The kind of heart I have… if someone needed it, I would share it with them. There’s no reason for someone to steal it like that. No reason.”
Wiseman said she’s on disability and a wheelchair ramp has never been in the budget. It’s something that can cost several thousand dollars or more depending on size, style, materials, and labor.
Through the nightmare, Wiseman said family and friends have stepped in to help. They’ve tried to piece together an old wheelchair but weren’t successful. But Wiseman ended up connecting with a company in Euclid that’s provided her with a loaner electric wheelchair.
“If it wasn't for the kindness of strangers, I’d be doomed,” Wiseman said.
Maloney reached out to several groups, including the City of Cleveland’s Department of Community Development and Department of Aging.
The Department of Aging took Wiseman’s contact information and said it would be in touch in hopes of connecting her to resources.
Wiseman said should a ramp be in her future, she’d like it to be portable.
“Because I don't want to stay here. I want to move. I want to get out of this neighborhood. And I know that’s saying a lot because crime is everywhere, but I have absolutely had it."
