But Colin Edgar can say the opposite, after three strangers from opposite ends of the state rallied together to give him back his independence and mobility. 

Forty-nine-year-old Mr Edgar, a wheelchair dependent man, had two disability scooters stolen from his Cowper Street home in Young two weeks ago.

The scooters, parked under the pergola in the backyard of his home when they were stolen in the early hours of Sunday, August 17, allowed him to get around the backyard and into town. 

He had since been restricted, until Young local Don Luff phoned the John Laws radio show on August 19 and told Colin’s story over national broadcast. 

A blind man from Ocean Shores in northern NSW, Peter Osmond, donated his second-hand scooter, and a Newcastle man, Steven Conbery, offered to transport it to Young. 

Tower’s Transport then transported the Shoprider scooter from Ocean Shores to Thornton, before Mr Conbery collected it and delivered it to Mr Edgar on Saturday. 

“It’s great,” Mr Edgar said of his new scooter. 

“It’s really good news.

“It’s probably flasher than the old ones.”

The generosity of total strangers puts faith back in humanity. 

“It means I’m able to get around the yard and get out to town,” Mr Edgar said. 

“It’s having my independence back, which is good.”

The new friends christened the scooter over a beer.

“We had a beer with them, which was good,” Mr Edgar said.

“They’re really nice. 

“It was a good outcome.”

Mr Edgar said Riverina Scooters offered to give it a free service.