NEW YORK (WCBS) – The New York City Police Department is searching for a suspect who stole an electric wheelchair from a great-grandmother and used it to flee the scene in a low-speed getaway earlier this month.
NYPD said the suspect, an adult woman, took the electric wheelchair from a sidewalk in Brooklyn on Sept. 1.
Surveillance video released by the NYPD shows the suspect riding the wheelchair along a sidewalk.
Rosalyn Johnson, a 70-year-old great-grandmother, said it was her wheelchair that was stolen.
Johnson previously had a stroke and depends on her wheelchair to get around.
She said she had left church and parked her wheelchair outside a bodega and went inside. When she came out just minutes later, her wheelchair was gone.
“God knows it wasn’t in my plan to catch her, because I would have took her back to the church with me and taught her a lesson: thou shall not steal,” Johnson said.
Police are still searching for the thief and are asking anyone with information to come forward or submit an anonymous tip.
In the meantime, NYPD surprised Johnson with a brand-new electric wheelchair.
On Wednesday, officers told Johnson they had a few questions for her. But when they escorted her outside, her new wheelchair was waiting for her.
“They [officers] are my heroes, yes,” Johnson said.
The great-grandmother said she has no ill will toward the thief.
“I forgive her, and she can come to church with me any Sunday,” Johnson said.
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