Man charged for damaging accessible van in Kitchener

Waterloo Regional Police have arrested a man after an accessible van was damaged in Kitchener.

Officers were called to a parking lot on Sydney Street South on Nov. 20 after the van was damaged and property was stolen from inside.

Investigators believe the damage happened sometime between 3 a.m. and 3:20 a.m.

On Dec. 9, officers found the 42-year-old man and arrested him.

He has been charged with theft under $5,000, possession of stolen property under $5,000, mischief over $5,000 and breaching probation.

Mother struggling to find safe transport for her son

The vehicle that was damaged belonged to a woman who had been using it to get her disabled and terminally ill son to his critical medical appointments.

She said the front and rear windshields of the van were smashed and a door was damaged. The vehicle was considered to be a write-off.

Since then, she has been struggling to find a suitable rental option that will allow her to get her son to his appointments safely.

“Initially, when I contacted the insurance company, they had agreed to a rental for up to 30 days, but their limit was $50 a day and that was just a typical minivan as opposed to a wheelchair van. They're outlandishly expensive. When I bought [the van] seven years ago, it was $50,000. They're now going for around $90,000,” Rebecca Sooley told CTV News shortly after her vehicle was damaged.

“Most major rental companies wouldn't actually carry rental vans that are wheelchair accessible just because they are not highly used and they're expensive to maintain,” she said. “I found a company up in Etobicoke that does wheelchair van rentals. It's under $200 a day, which is still quite expensive."