Projo 7 to 7 News Blog

By Greg Smith
Journal staff writer

The four members of the Ford family of Smith Hill, Providence, are having a run of bad luck.

As the family slept on Dec. 6, a bold thief entered the house and stole a wallet, purse, car and house keys and Christmas presents. Then the thief stole the family car, which contained the daughter's wheelchair.

The police recovered the car, which had been abandoned behind a factory on Hartford Avenue. But the thief, who apparently still had the stolen car keys, returned last night, and took the car again. The culprit then led the police on a chase in which the uninsured car was wrecked.

"I want to move out of here," the desperate mother of the family, Christine Ford, 40, said today. "We were very scared last night. I barricaded my kids and me in my bedroom."

The family members, who occupy the first-floor apartment in a triple-decker at 508 Chalkstone Ave., also include the father, Donald, who works as a security guard and takes the bus to his job; daughter Barbara, 16; and son Benjamin, 8.

The police said they arrested Fernando Lopez, 25, of 30 Pekin St., Smith Hill, who was driving the stolen car, and lodged six charges against him, including auto theft.

Even after the Dec. 6 incident, the family's spirit had been restored for a time. Barbara, an epileptic and special-needs student at the Birch Vocational School, which is housed at Mount Pleasant High School, relied heavily on the missing wheelchair. But an anonymous donor gave the family a replacement wheelchair.

The staff at Roger Williams Medical Center took up a collection and gave the Fords replacement Christmas gifts, according to Mrs. Ford and the hospital staff. The Fords were hosted at a small party at the hospital.

And the police found the car a few days before Christmas, according to Mrs. Ford. That was crucial, she said, because she needed the car in order to take Barbara to doctor appointments and to pick her up at school if she has a seizure.

But misfortune struck again -- hard -- Sunday night.

 Tags  Providence R.I.

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