Edmonton man seeks return of stolen wheelchair accessible van

An Edmonton man is turning to the public in the hope his wheelchair accessible van can be found.

“Handicapped vans are hard to come by,” Mike McMullan said.

“Once they’re on the road, they’re usually driven until they die because they’re so expensive to replace.”

The van was last seen Thursday night in its usual parking spot near the front entrance of McMullan’s building in the area of 112 Avenue and 80 Street.

By Friday morning, it was gone.

“It’s like a brand new van,” McMullan said. “There’s no way if they went out and trashed it that I’m ever going to be able to replace it with the money I will get back from the insurance company.”

The van is a specially equipped 2000 Ford E150, which is blue in colour.

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Police have been contacted; McMullan indicates there’s no evidence to suggest a window was smashed to gain access to the vehicle, which was locked at the time of the theft.

McMullan indicates the van has a magnetic locking system, a piece of which was stolen earlier this week.

“I was in the midst of replacing it,” McMullan said.  “Now the van is gone, so I don’t know if it’s the same people that maybe know a little bit about the system.”

McMullan, who is paralyzed from the chest down with minimal hand function, says the loss of the van means for the loss of his independence.

“It just baffles me why anybody would take a wheelchair van.”