Cops recover wheelchair stolen from teen with cerebral palsy
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
(Short article, no more at link.)
Feeling the Bern
(3,839 posts)Initech
(100,155 posts)Midnight Writer
(21,886 posts)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
(15,814 posts)Thanks for summarizing the study
Judi Lynn
(160,707 posts)annominous
(68 posts)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
(160,707 posts)[center]
Back in business with his own chair once more!
Michel Peralta
In this case, having a camera on hand helped. [/center]
ninjanurse
(93 posts)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.