A pleasant evening out to a concert in Deurne ended Saturday evening for the handicapped Huub from Liessel with a huge hangover. When he wanted to go back home, his adapted bicycle, which allows him to move faster with his wheelchair, turned out to be completely destroyed. Result: Huub is confined to home for the time being and can barely leave the house.
Huub had deliberately put his special needs bicycle in a safe place, or so he thought. Opposite the Cultural Center in Deurne, where it is brightly lit and there are also many other bicycles. But his special needs bicycle was completely destroyed, while other bicycles were fine.
“Offenders have no idea what impact this will have.”
“I really don’t think it’s normal. The perpetrators have no idea what impact this has,” says Huub. Huub depends on his bicycle for his voluntary work and social contacts. This allows him to move a bit further than just his hometown of Liessel.
Every Thursday and Friday he works as a volunteer at a school in Asten, to help students and teachers with computer problems. So he can’t go there for the time being. And visiting friends or family outside Liessel is no longer possible either. Huub had to call his mother on Saturday to take him home.
“Now I’m at home, because I have no other means of transport,” he says. The bicycle is so badly damaged that it has become unusable. Cables are cut and parts hang loose. “There are just wheels under my bike, so if it got in the way, it could just be moved.”
“This is the lowest of the low.”
He suspects intent. “This was really with an idea of: a disabled person can’t do anything anyway, so we’ll just grind that bike,” says a still angry Huub. He hopes that the perpetrators can improve their lives. , because if you do something like that to act tough, then Huub sees it gloomy. “This is the lowest of the lowest, they are in a group of friends and stir each other up,” he says angrily and sadly.
Whether the bicycle can still be made remains to be seen. Huub needs help from the municipality for a new bicycle, which can easily take three months. Until then, Huub can just leave the house for an errand in his hometown, but that’s where it ends. Because Huub did everything with his adapted bicycle. For the time being, he is confined to his wheelchair due to vandalism.