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Thieves steal pensioner's wheelchair
A DISABLED pensioner has been left housebound after callous thieves stole his wheelchair from outside a shop.
John Porritt, 81, relies on his wheelchair to get out and about and says he has been has been left shocked and saddened by the theft.
The pensioner, who lives off Rossmere Way, Hartlepool, said: "I'm lost without it. It's a horrible thing to do."
John's sister, Ethel Wilding, 71, took the wheelchair home after visiting her brother to store it overnight.
She popped into Park Stores, in Rossmere Way, Hartlepool, and left the wheelchair outside at around 6pm on Friday.
But when she returned just minutes later the grey manual wheelchair had gone.
John, who had been to the University Hospital of Hartlepool earlier that day for physiotherapy on his legs, said he depends on crutches at home and uses the wheelchair to go short distances when leaving his home.
The former steel erector said: "I can hardly walk. I'm disabled. I'm quite upset. If I go out I have to get a taxi, but it's expensive.
"The main time I use it is to go up the hospital and that's how it came to be out because I had been to hospital that day."
Police are appealing for anyone with information to call PC Darren Frankland, of Hartlepool Police, on (01642) 302178 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111.
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Weather for Hartlepool
Monday 13 February 2012
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Cloudy
Temperature: 3 C to 9 C
Wind Speed: 21 mph
Wind direction: North west
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Temperature: 5 C to 9 C
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