“I walk along the beach for half an hour or something like that. And I always park the Triride in exactly the same place, all the locals kind of know me. When I walked back up the ramp, I couldn’t believe my eyes. The Triride was gone.
“Fortunately I had my phone with me and I was able to call my husband to come and get me because I was stranded.”
Cavanaugh says her Triride, which is multi-terrain and custom-made to her specifications, “keeps me young” and allows her to be active and independent.
Denny Cavanaugh has been paraplegic for more than 30 years and credits her Triride with helping her live a full life.
“I’m 71. It makes me feel really old when I say it because I feel much younger than that because I’m just so able with the Triride.
“I can be independent and have a wonderful sense of freedom when I am driving it. It gets me onto a beach, a walking track, steep hills and I can run the dog. It can go as fast as 25 to 30 km/h so it gives me a way of going out with the grandchildren and living a full life.”
Since her Triride was stolen, Cavanaugh says she has had her freedom and independence taken away from her.
“I’m just really, really distressed that I’ve lost my freedom … I’m elderly but I’m able to participate in the community and get around. I’m just really upset and distressed.
“As I’ve aged, I’ve wrecked my shoulders pushing a manual wheelchair, and I can’t use one outside anymore.
“I’ve spent most of the couple of days just sitting on the side of my bed … there’s not very much I can do because my walking is so limited.”
She has filed a police report and posted about her situation on Facebook.
“There are some people nearby who have door cam footage of two men loading my Triride and wheelchair into the back of a ute.
“Somebody else saw – it sounds like the same vehicle – a ute with a wheelchair tied onto it.”
She is pleading with the offenders to return her Triride.
“I’m not angry with who has done it … if they were to just leave it somewhere in the open and let me have it back that would be great. No questions asked.
“I just want my Triride.”