Home Invasion Robber takes Blind Man’s Wheelchair

A cruel crime left an 85-year-old blind man without his wheelchair on Tuesday morning.

It happened during a home invasion robbery at Ventura Fernandez’ home on Fairbourne Place in Oxnard .

Fernandez said his dog started barking before 7 a.m., and he soon realized someone was in his room.

They had come through his screen window and entered his bedroom.

He asked who’s there and a man demanded to know where he kept the keys to his safes. Somehow the intruder knew he had safes in his home.

The retired construction worker who lost his vision to cataracts said he didn’t have the keys, he had given them to his son who had recently cleaned most of the items out.

But he did have about $70 in change, a watch, and his passport locked up.

The robber punched him, and then propped him up on the bed before using his wheelchair to cart his two safes away.

Fernandez had another wheelchair in the home that was too small for him.

His caregiver told her friend Val about the crime and late Tuesday night Val brought him a used wheelchair to use.

One neighbor said there was a burglary on the same street recently.

Another, who did not wish to be identified, said stealing a wheelchair from a blind man is messed up.

Fernandez said he once kicked out a man who was living in the garage and the man threatened him, but he did not know if that had anything to do with the break-in.

Oxnard Police Sgt. Jeff Long said he knows people are outraged. He said investigators are working to solve the case.