OXNARD : Council Candidate’s Car Still Missing

Oxnard police on Tuesday continued to search for a stolen car belonging to City Council candidate Juan Soria, a double amputee whose specially equipped Ford LTD was taken from a busy street in front of a downtown eatery.

Soria said he was enjoying a bowl of menudo about 12:30 p.m. Saturday at El Ranchero Restaurant on 2nd Street, near Oxnard Boulevard, when the 1981, white four-door was stolen.

The car is equipped with hand controls, worth about $500, that allow Soria to drive. A handicapped placard lay on the car’s dashboard when it was stolen.

“I figured the guys who took it were joy riding and would take it to a shopping center or someplace when they were done,” said the 60-year-old Soria, wheelchair-bound after losing part of both legs in recent years because of poor blood circulation. “But I looked for that car all over town and it hasn’t shown up.”

Soria, one of 13 candidates running for a council seat in the March 2 special election, filed a police report only to discover that the car was one of 15 stolen in Oxnard last Saturday.

“It has been reported stolen and has not been found,” said police spokesman David Keith, noting that an average of three cars are stolen each day in the city. “On a real busy weekend, we can have a dozen stolen cars pretty easily.”

As the election campaign draws to a close, Soria has to depend on friends and relatives to get around.

“I’ll just have to learn to live with it,” Soria said. “What else can you do?”