MONTREAL — As a father and his disabled son wait, their wheelchair-adapted van, which was stolen from the NDG family in December, is still being assessed for repairs.
The West Island Chrysler dealership that offered to help fix it now claims the damage is much more extensive than initially expected.
The adapted van was finally found in the parking lot of a local scrapyard, leading many to wonder why and how companies could purchase stolen vehicles.
READ MORE: Father and 8-year-old son devastated over adapted van theft
“It seems to be very easy to steal a car and to go to the recycle company and sell it,” said Carlos Ruiz, whose eight-year-old disabled son is anxiously awaiting for the return of his wheelchair-adapted van.
“Fernando was asking me for his van and I told him we will have it very soon,” said the single father.
“I have been told it has a lot of damage and they have to check, to run some tests, to know what was the damage.”
READ MORE: NDG family thrilled after adapted van is found
What upsets Ruiz the most is the fact that his van was found in the parking lot of a scrapyard.
He strongly suspects it would be gone without a trace by now, if it hadn’t been spotted by a good Samaritan who had seen the story on Global News and called police.
But the owner of the recycling plant in question insisted his company was in the clear.
READ MORE: Questions raised over scrap-yard where stolen adapted van was found
“I’m here for 23 years, and I never got problems with the police about cars, it’s really really rare,” said Karl Beaudin, the co-owner of Century Acier.
The Lachine recycling company pays cash for cars and other scrap metal.
But according to Beaudin, police never notified him about the stolen adapted van that was found in his parking lot last month.
He insisted his company follows the law and takes extreme measures to avoid buying stolen vehicles.
“We get the driver’s licence, the registration of the car when the guys come in, we got a picture of everything that we buy,” said Beaudin.
“We don’t have a problem.”
The company has a complete log and, pictures of every item they purchase and even of the people who are selling it.
But what they don’t typically ask for in the case of cars, is the owner’s permission.
“I don’t really care about the ID of the owner but just the ID of the people selling to me, in case he got something wrong,” said Beaudin.
Century Acier Inc. deals with close to 300 customers a day, and while stolen vehicles are a rarity, the owner admitted other items like copper wires are harder to verify.
“It’s really hard for us to know if it’s stolen or not, a wire looks like another wire,” he said.
“Some people call us and say hey some people stole my wire … okay, but give me more than that,” said Beaudin.
There’s no police investigation into who stole the wheelchair-adapted van, as since it has been found, the case has been closed.
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Ruiz said he just wishes recycling companies would ask for the owner’s approval before taking and scrapping a vehicle that may be stolen.
“I think the recycling company should improve the way they buy cars!”
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