When thieves stole four tires and wheels from a Jeep in the Cascade Park area on Saturday morning, they got away with more than a few hundred dollars worth of car parts. They took some of 51-year-old Michael Mayorga’s last possessions and left the rest sitting on four landscaping bricks in his parents’ driveway.
Mayorga sustained a traumatic brain injury two years ago in a motorcycle accident near Sacramento, Calif. He was unable to walk and feed himself, so his two parents took him into their Vancouver home.
He spent 30 days in a coma after the accident and another 60 in rehabilitation, said his father, Robert Mayorga.
He went from using a wheelchair to a walker. Now he can walk with a cane, his father said.
Robert Mayorga said someone took the wheels from the car sometime between 2 and 5 a.m. Saturday. He discovered the theft when he went outside around 9 a.m. and found the Jeep resting on four blocks.
Robert Mayorga said he was concerned because his driveway is sloped and the Jeep seemed to be unstable.
His son can’t use or drive the Jeep, but he was attached to it, he said.
“We haven’t sold the thing because basically that’s the only thing he has left,” Mayorga told The Columbian on Monday. “It was sad for us in a way because they violated the only thing that he has.”
Purchased new, the wheels and tires are worth about $2,600, Robert Mayorga said.
The family arranged to get the wheels replaced, but the new ones aren’t as nice as the ones that were stolen, Robert Mayorga said.
