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Low-speed chase to foil 4mph joyrider

Michael Byrne
26/ 4/2005

THERE was no need for a high-speed chase when security staff went after a joyrider. In fact, it was just as quick on foot.

What the thief didn't realise when she took the electric wheelchair from outside the Asda store in Dane Street was that it had a top speed of just four miles an hour!

Her progress was so slow that she lost patience in the end and abandoned the wheelchair near the Cenotaph, unaware that her snail-paced 200-yard trip had been captured on film by the security cameras that cover the town centre.

Asda porters Derek Moores and Steve Waring went out to rescue the wheelchair and return it to its owner, Alan Young, who is now busy assessing the damage. A bag with £40 of art equipment was stolen.

Mr Young, aged 59, of Rosefield Crescent, Newbold, said: "I had left the chair for an hour while shopping and then had a cup of tea in the cafe.

"I always park my wheelchair in the foyer of the store and I would never have thought that someone would actually steal it. I was extremely worried when I realised it was gone as I am completely stranded without it.

"The chair is brilliant because I can go about 30 miles on one charge, which means I can get to Hopwood Hall College for my classes without having to pay for taxi fares."

Mr Young, who suffers from osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis, could face time without the chair, due to damage.

"The calipers on the chair,which mean it can go up onto kerbs, are damaged," he said.

"I will have to get staff at the hospital to take a look at it and I don't know if they will have to send it away to be repaired. If they do it may mean I have to miss out on going to college.

"But the police have been really helpful. They offered to take me to college or home that day if I didn't get the wheelchair back."