Trading in Your Wheels
Shamal Battice, 28, went to an Ocala, Fla., car dealership, ostensibly to buy a car. He asked to check out a car on the lot. Battice, a paraplegic, asked to feel the seats, so salesman Anselmo “Chico” Barreto opened the door for him. Next, Battice said he wanted to see what the car felt like inside, so Barreto helped him out of his wheelchair and into the driver’s seat. Then, he says, Battice locked the door, started the car, and used a folding cane to hit the gas and take off. “It was unbelievable, only in the movies,” Barreto said. Police pursued Battice through three counties, but lost him. He was eventually spotted trying to fill up at a gas station, and was arrested on charges of driving with a suspended or revoked license, and grand theft auto. (MS/Ocala Star Banner) ...Let’s see if we got this right: a 20-something paraplegic can outrun multiple cops thanks to a folding cane, and they only caught him because he stopped for gas? Must be Florida.Original Publication Date: 23 February 2014
This story is in True’s book collections, in Volume 20.
This story is in True’s book collections, in Volume 20.
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