Weymouth scooter theft victim gets new wheels (From Thisisdorset)

Weymouth scooter theft victim gets new wheels

12:37pm Monday 28th January 2013 in Latest By Rachael Burnett

A DISABLED woman who was left stranded in her home is ‘over the moon’ after a company replaced her stolen mobility scooter.

Janet Cole was left housebound after heartless vandals stole the scooter, her only means of transport, from the lobby at her block of flats in Littlemoor in a callous attack.

After seeing her story in the Echo, two local companies in Weymouth got in contact with Mrs Cole to offer a replacement vehicle.

She said: “I am really over the moon, it means so much to me.

“I just can’t believe it.

“This means I can go out now and walk my dog or go to the shops, I’ve got my freedom back.”

Phil Bartlett, director at Active Mobility who supplied the new vehicle, said they were happy to be able to help.

He said: “She is one of our customers and we want to look after her.

“We saw her story and it was such an unfortunate circumstance.

“As a company we always try and help out where we can.

“Janet was very, very upset and can’t get around without the scooter so we were glad to be able to help her out.”

James Monahan of Weymouth Mobility also offered a replacement scooter.

He said: "We would have gladly given her a new one. As soon as I saw the story on the Echo website I just wanted to help."

Mrs Cole, aged 56, described the scooter as a ‘life-line’ as she suffers with fibromyalgia, a disorder that causes pain all over the body, as well as chronic fatigue syndrome, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, arthritis in her back and joints and she had to have two discs in her back removed to try and ease the pain.

The vehicle was recovered by police a short time after the theft in a nearby field – but Mrs Cole said the wires had been damaged and body work had been taken off.