Help Hard to Find for Paraplegic Robbed of Last $6
A homeless paraplegic Vietnam veteran was pushed out of his wheelchair and robbed of his last $6 late Tuesday, authorities said.
Without money or the means to move around, the troubles of George Donovan, 47, got even worse, Los Angeles Police Sgt. Dale Bootow said. Donovan, who lives off a veteran’s pension and usually sleeps in a downtown alley, had no place to go and no way to get there, Bootow said.
” . . . Nobody seemed willing to take him,” the Central Division sergeant said. “We called Veterans Administration, county Department of Social Services and, even though he wasn’t drunk, we called the detoxification centers . . . .”
Police said the agencies were either too full or not equipped to house paraplegic boarders. Hospitals would not take him because he was not ill, Bootow said.
After three hours of calling, the sergeant said, the Union Rescue Mission on Skid Row agreed to take Donovan in.
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