Cops recover wheelchair stolen from teen with cerebral palsy

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Cops recover wheelchair stolen from teen with cerebral palsy

Updated 2:29 pm, Saturday, July 16, 2016

LEONIA, N.J. (AP) — Authorities have recovered a motorized wheelchair stolen from a teenager with cerebral palsy and arrested the man who allegedly took it.

Leonia police say 18-year-old Michael Peralta is charged with theft and unlawful taking of a means of conveyance. Bail was set at $25,000 cash for the Palisades Park, New Jersey, man, and it wasn't known Saturday if he's retained an attorney.

The wheelchair, valued at $12,000, belongs to a 14-year-old boy. It was stolen Thursday from a condominium complex in an incident captured on video that showed a man sitting in the chair and driving it away.

A Leonia police officer on routine patrol saw the wheelchair's headrest Friday at Peralta's home, two blocks from the border between the two towns. It was obstructed by bicycle and garbage cans.

Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/crime/article/Cops-recover-wheelchair-stolen-from-teen-with-8382220.php

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(Short article, no more at link.)

[Feeling the Bern]

1. Real Headline: Cops praised for doing their jobs.

[Initech]

2. WTF!!!! How low can people get???

[Midnight Writer]

3. Like most crimes, probably an impulse by the thief

A while back, psychiatrists did a study a 3000 repeat offenders in prisons, looking for a common personality disorder that lead them to commit crimes. The result? Nothing. Not sociopathy, not mania, not borderline, not hysteria, not depression. All of these disorders were present in repeat offenders in much the same distribution as in the general population.

What repeat offenders did have in common was poor impulse control. They would act on spur of the moment impulses, the sort that most of us may feel but then reject immediately.

For example, if most of us see a car with the keys in the ignition, we may think "Hell, that would be easy to steal" but we would not actually do it. We may see a woman with a purse on her arm and think "I could grab that and be on my way before anyone could react" but we wouldn't actually do it. Or we may see a motorized wheelchair and think "That may be fun to take a cruise in", but we wouldn't do it. Or start a fight. Or rob a store. Or mug a senior citizen. But the repeat offender will always be vulnerable to the impulsive shortcut. Example; if you need money, most of us will look for a job. The impulsive criminal will look for a steal, a scam, a robbery, a snatch, a grab. if you feel disrespected, most of us will suck it up or ignore it. An impulsive personality will be compelled to strike out in vehemence (Think Trump) or violence.

[MissB]

5. Interesting!

Thanks for summarizing the study

[Judi Lynn]

6. Who better to have running the country: not a person more self-disciplined but LESS disciplined. n/t

[annominous]

8. Nah.

When "most of us" see a car with the keys in the ignition, we think, wow, someone could steal that easily. When we see a woman with a purse on her arm, we don't think about it at all, because it's normal for women to have purses on their arms. Far from bringing out the acquisitiveness in us, it doesn't even register. When we see a motorized wheelchair some of us think "what a great world we live in where disabled people can get around, so much better than the bad old days when disabled people had to stay home, out of sight.

Nah.

You are probably right about the commonality of poor impulse control among repeat offenders, but it also takes criminal tendencies to have those other thoughts you attribute to "most of us". "Most of us" don't think about how much "fun" it would be to start a fight, or rob a store, or mug a senior. It's not that we actively think about not doing such things, it's that "most of us" don't experience those thoughts in the first place.

[Judi Lynn]

4. The kid who needed it, and the guy who took it:

[center]

Back in business with his own chair once more!



Michel Peralta



In this case, having a camera on hand helped. [/center]

[ninjanurse]

7. I'm a nurse

At an insurance company and I've helped people get these chairs. They are customized, take forever to get, cost as much as a car. Without the chair people are stranded in their house. Messing with someone's motorized custom wheelchair is major damage. I think the fool who took it has problems of his own and needs some serious education.

[MADem]

9. Video of the theft here

http://pix11.com/2016/07/16/18-year-old-arrested-in-theft-of-wheelchair-from-leonia-teen-with-cerebral-palsy/

[Judi Lynn]

10. Thank you for posting the video. It added a lot. So glad the chair was found intact, & returned.n/t

[MADem]

11. Happy to contribute... nt