Deputy Pushes Elderly Woman's Wheelchair Home After Battery Dies
It can be difficult to feel independent when your means of transportation is limited to your own two feet in a city that is sprawling. It’s even harder when you’re in a wheelchair, and the difficulty level only gets cranked up more when you live in an arid, hot place.
Two deputies with the Lancaster Sheriff’s Station were alerted about a problem last week: Something or someone (or both) was in the road.
It’s one thing to have a downed tree or wildlife to avoid, but this was another matter entirely. When the deputies showed up, they found a rather sad scene: An elderly woman was sitting in a battery-dead wheelchair.
Fortunately she was okay, but she was in a very dangerous spot. The Lancaster Sheriff’s Station posted about the incident later, providing footage and a description.
“Deputies Chapman and Montanez received a call of a traffic hazard, a wheelchair in the middle of the road,” the station’s Facebook post read. “When they arrived, they did find the wheelchair on the side of the road, but with an elderly female sitting in it!”
“Her motorized wheelchair had run out of power and she was stranded. Deputies Chapman and Montanez quickly offered her a ride home, but she was very upset about leaving her only means of mobility behind.”
“The wheelchair, being quite heavy and unable to fold because of the battery pack, did not fit in their patrol vehicle.”
While regular wheelchairs can be folded up and stowed away, this motorized wheelchair required special accommodations that the sheriffs didn’t have.
But they did have two things they could offer: A police car with air conditioning, and a strong set of legs.
The woman was offered a seat in the car while one of the deputies got out and started pushing. Those motorized wheelchairs are not light, and the woman’s home wasn’t exactly around the corner.
“That’s when Deputy Montanez stepped up,” the post continued. “He decided he would push the wheelchair to her home, about one mile, in full uniform and boots.”
“Deputy Chapman teased him about his ‘slow’ pace and you can hear our eldelry (sic) friend getting a good laugh out of it!”
“We are so incredibly grateful to all of our deputies for the work they do on a daily basis. My hero wears a badge.”
Plenty of people who have seen the video are now singing the deputies’ praises, too, and are proud of their actions. Many wondered how the woman got out there in the first place, but there were no further details provided.
Hopefully she won’t be stranded in such a bad spot again, and maybe she’ll be able to find someone to give her a ride instead of being forced to take to the highway herself.
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