In the middle of the night, the police rang the doorbell at 47-year-old Sabine from Alkmaar. That often doesn’t mean much good. Not this time either. “They told me that the catalytic converter had been stolen from my wheelchair car. I could cry,” she says emotionally Alkmaar Central.
Sabine is completely incapacitated for work due to her disability and her son is bound to a wheelchair due to a disability. It is not a financial fatpot for the single mother and now she also has to pay for the costs of the stolen catalyst.
Mobility decreased
The theft happened in the night from Tuesday to Wednesday. An observant neighbor saw two suspicious men around her car and informed the police. The police arrested the men. “They had equipment with them to steal catalytic converters,” said a police spokesman. But they didn’t have Sabine’s catalyst with them. “Maybe they dumped it somewhere.”
By definition, the act is of course already unacceptable, but that her car was chosen in the disabled spot is beyond Sabine’s understanding. “A wheelchair car, let them take it out. I can’t do anything anymore. I can’t drive anymore, can’t visit the hospital and can’t pick up my son. My son is in a wheelchair and it’s important that he just go home and that is not possible now. The bit of mobility that I still have has decreased and I do not want to be dependent on bus transport. It restricts me and my son so terribly in our freedom.”
Neighbour
Sabine is happy that an observant neighbor saw the suspects. “I’m very glad someone was awake last night and saw it. People hardly look around anymore.” She urges a bit of vigilance among local residents. Unfortunately, it came too late for her. Because she is WA-insured, the insurance of the required 500 euros for repair does not pay anything. “That’s the worst for me.” Next week Sabine will be 48 years old, she had imagined a different present.