Essential workers get van stolen and totaled
Donation protected
Due to someone's poor decisions, not only did a caravan of essential workers lose their way of getting to and from work, our family just lost our security of having our only reliable and safe vehicle.
There's quite a bit of frustration with Geico, unfortunately the plan we could afford as a low income family does not cover the experience of Grand Theft Auto, and Assault with a deadly weapon, not even the possibility of a rental. We trusted Geico to save our family from our worst fears, and they took advantage of that trust from a reliable and safe driving customer. We don't even have $500 to move it from the tow yard. There's no fight to have when you're an essential worker barely living paycheck to paycheck. We are a family of 9. Five of us depended on that van for work and school. We care for our elderly Mother/ Grandmother who has dementia , diabetes, and needs medical transport weekly. We also have a member of our family with autism, mental delay, Crohns, and ulcerative colitis, and needs transportation to the doctor frequently.
While my husband was at work, 10/30/20 in the early morning hours, he gave directions to a customer who was obviously inhibited by something (he had been dropped off at the time and appeared to be traveling on foot). My husband then had his personal keys stolen from the inside of his bag by the same man he had just assisted. Upon a trusted co-worker alerting the activity to my husband, the man was inside the van as my husband ran up to save his property from being stolen, the inebriated man turned the wheels towards him, gunned it directly at my husband, and thankfully was unable to cause any physical harm to my husband. The man sped off, got onto the highway, got an entire county away, rear ended a semi going over 100mph , wrapped around the semi, hit the semi again, spun out to the cement guardrail, hit that, and THEN when a good Samaritan, noticed car seats in the back, thinking the worst, stopped to help, had his truck stolen by the guy, who got a few blocks away before totaling the front of his truck, then the man stumbled to a nearby business, banged on the glass until an employee answered, says 'I've just been in a car wreck can you call the police I need them', realizes what he's done and takes off on foot. By this time the police have a detailed description of the man from multiple witnesses and a unit with K-9s searching for the man. That's where the information stops for now, hopefully there will be further updates. (We can't give out all the details due to the ongoing investigation but will give out and add whatever we can when its available)
As for the essential workers, there are no options for them to miss a day of work, currently walking (weather permitting ), getting rides and uber are being considered as substitutions`but this is only a short term fix. All but one of us work nights so the bus is not an option. This makes it even harder.
However this is a long term situation, from the added stress of being an essential employee during a global pandemic, to the added responsibility of a new debt.
The only things unscathed, but still not salvageable, were the two from birth and up car seats.
Our oldest child, who is autistic, is having a very difficult time understanding everything right now. He doesn't understand our emotions and its hard to explain to him what happened.
The most expensive things lost, besides the van, is our safety first car seats, we just can't replace those.
We put safety above all when looking at cars, which is why we chose the Chrysler town and country right after our first son was born. We made so many memories, it's a shame we didn't get to take one last trip altogether. This is a very bitter goodbye to stability for all of us.
There's quite a bit of frustration with Geico, unfortunately the plan we could afford as a low income family does not cover the experience of Grand Theft Auto, and Assault with a deadly weapon, not even the possibility of a rental. We trusted Geico to save our family from our worst fears, and they took advantage of that trust from a reliable and safe driving customer. We don't even have $500 to move it from the tow yard. There's no fight to have when you're an essential worker barely living paycheck to paycheck. We are a family of 9. Five of us depended on that van for work and school. We care for our elderly Mother/ Grandmother who has dementia , diabetes, and needs medical transport weekly. We also have a member of our family with autism, mental delay, Crohns, and ulcerative colitis, and needs transportation to the doctor frequently.
While my husband was at work, 10/30/20 in the early morning hours, he gave directions to a customer who was obviously inhibited by something (he had been dropped off at the time and appeared to be traveling on foot). My husband then had his personal keys stolen from the inside of his bag by the same man he had just assisted. Upon a trusted co-worker alerting the activity to my husband, the man was inside the van as my husband ran up to save his property from being stolen, the inebriated man turned the wheels towards him, gunned it directly at my husband, and thankfully was unable to cause any physical harm to my husband. The man sped off, got onto the highway, got an entire county away, rear ended a semi going over 100mph , wrapped around the semi, hit the semi again, spun out to the cement guardrail, hit that, and THEN when a good Samaritan, noticed car seats in the back, thinking the worst, stopped to help, had his truck stolen by the guy, who got a few blocks away before totaling the front of his truck, then the man stumbled to a nearby business, banged on the glass until an employee answered, says 'I've just been in a car wreck can you call the police I need them', realizes what he's done and takes off on foot. By this time the police have a detailed description of the man from multiple witnesses and a unit with K-9s searching for the man. That's where the information stops for now, hopefully there will be further updates. (We can't give out all the details due to the ongoing investigation but will give out and add whatever we can when its available)
As for the essential workers, there are no options for them to miss a day of work, currently walking (weather permitting ), getting rides and uber are being considered as substitutions`but this is only a short term fix. All but one of us work nights so the bus is not an option. This makes it even harder.
However this is a long term situation, from the added stress of being an essential employee during a global pandemic, to the added responsibility of a new debt.
The only things unscathed, but still not salvageable, were the two from birth and up car seats.
Our oldest child, who is autistic, is having a very difficult time understanding everything right now. He doesn't understand our emotions and its hard to explain to him what happened.
The most expensive things lost, besides the van, is our safety first car seats, we just can't replace those.
We put safety above all when looking at cars, which is why we chose the Chrysler town and country right after our first son was born. We made so many memories, it's a shame we didn't get to take one last trip altogether. This is a very bitter goodbye to stability for all of us.
Fundraising team (2)
Samantha Stephens
Organizer
Tigard, OR
Jim N Vicki Wilson
Beneficiary
Heidi Perez
Team member