'Low-life thieves' take wheelchair garden cart from Waikato man's rural property
A thief took a garden trailer Phillip Lewis uses to feed his cows. In the past year, two attempts have been made to take his wheelchair.
Thieves attempted to steal Phillip Lewis' wheelchair, while he watched helpless from his digger, unable to jump out and intervene.
All he could do was manoeuvre his digger to frighten the opportunist thieves off his Waikato property and then call police.
That was about six months ago but it wasn't the first time he'd been left stranded in his digger.
Phillip Lewis has had two attempts by thieves to take his wheelchair from his rural Karapiro property. On Monday, someone took the garden cart he tows behind his wheelchair to feed his cows.
About a year earlier, thieves took his wheelchair for a joyride along the cycle path next to Maungatautari Rd, across the Karapiro Dam and dumped it in a public toilet.
And on Monday, thieves made off with a green garden cart he used to tow behind his wheelchair to feed out to cows on his rural property just out of Cambridge.
Lewis posted news of the cart's disappearance on Neighbourly where he labelled the people who took it "low-life thieves".
The 30,000, 4x4 wheelchair has a top speed of around 10km/h, providing a slow get-away for would-be thieves.
He hoped to raise awareness of the theft, and attempted theft of his wheelchair, but realised the cart was gone for good.
Lewis said there were now many more people passing by his gate since the cycle path, from Cambridge to Lake Karapiro, became popular.
Unfortunately it meant he couldn't leave anything by his front fence which might tempt thieves to strike.
"I've lived here for about five years and really like Cambridge. But I've grown up on farms all of my life where you don't have to worry a lot about this sort of thing (theft).
"Sadly, now I've had to padlock my front gate and chain my wheelchair to the fence when I go to use my digger. I've had to start saving to build a new shed closer to my house, away from the road, where I can keep everything locked up."
Lewis said in the first attempted theft of his wheelchair, about a year ago, he had been working on his digger on the property.
"Part of my property used to be a quarry so I've turned it into a clean fill business, where people can drop off concrete, top soil and clay. I hope to reclaim it one day and build some cabins there.
"I use my wheelchair to get in and out of the digger to work there. I had come back to get out when I noticed the wheelchair was gone.
"So I was stuck in the digger. I had to ring my partner for help. People were walking past and I asked if they'd seen a wheelchair."
They reported seeing one in a public toilet across the dam.
"I can only think it was teenagers taking it for a joyride. I could see the wheel marks on the ground, where they had done some wheelies."
About six months ago a more co-ordinated attempt was made to take the $30,000, 4x4 wheelchair.
"They had a station wagon parked with the bonnet up and another car next to it, to block what they were doing.
"My wheelchair is very heavy so they would have had trouble getting it into the back of the station wagon anyway."
Lewis, unable to get out and run after the offenders, could only use his digger to scare them off.
"The cars left in different directions, I took down the number plates and reported it to police."
Lewis said the wheelchair's top speed was about 10kmh and its limited battery power meant it could probably only travel about 20km.
While it was a valuable tool for his work on the property, because of his disability, it would be of no use to other people.
"I don't understand why someone would want a wheelchair like this."
He was also stumped about the theft of his garden cart.
"I left it alone for about 10-15 minutes while I went to check on my cows. Came back and saw it had gone, and just thought, you've got to be kidding. Really, a garden cart?"
Lewis said he was happy to read offers of help from people reading of the theft on Neighbourly and other online platforms.
- Stuff
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