B.C. woman finally gets mobility device back after Toronto Lyft driver stopped returning calls
CBC
A British Columbia woman with a neurological disorder says she's looking forward to finally getting her mobility device back from a Toronto ride-hailing driver, who didn’t return it after she accidentally left it in his car in October.
Bronwyn Berg says she, her son, Lyft and even Toronto police, had tried to convince the driver to return the $8,000-SmartDrive device, which powers her wheelchair, without success.
Without the motorized assistive device, an electronic wheel that attaches to the back of her chair, Berg says she has trouble maneuvering up hills or on uneven terrain, meaning the 55-year-old has been virtually housebound for months.
"I'm ecstatic to get it back, but I also feel kind of battle-weary," Berg told CBC Toronto. "Why did it have to be like this? I'm exhausted by this three-month process."
Berg suffers from a neurological disorder and seizures, and has been in a wheelchair for about nine years, she said. She got the SmartDrive about seven years ago, but since she's now on disability support, she can't afford to pay another $8,000 to replace the wheel.
The Lyft driver sent the device by FedEx to Berg's son Magnus in Toronto on Friday. He agreed to return the SmartDrive two days earlier, after being contacted by CBC Toronto.
However, during an interview the driver couldn't explain why he'd kept the device since October, when Berg inadvertently left it in the trunk of his vehicle.
It was Oct. 7 when Berg arrived in Toronto from her home in Chemainus, B.C., to spend the Thanksgiving weekend with her son.
"It was a wonderful, relaxed weekend," Berg recalled. "And then it came to this."
On Oct. 13, she got a Lyft from her son's downtown apartment to Toronto Pearson Airport. When she arrived at the airport in Victoria, she realized her SmartDrive was missing.
Several phone calls later, she realized she'd left it in the trunk of the Lyft driver's car.
The company managed to reach the driver, and told her son Magnus how to contact him. Both Magnus and Bronwyn said the driver asked to be paid $30 to return the device, which they agreed to, and a Lyft customer service rep said the company would handle the transaction.
Lyft told CBC Toronto the company also provided the driver with a prepaid FedEx label addressed to Magnus, so he wouldn't have to pay to return the device.
That's when the driver stopped returning calls, to both Lyft and the Bergs.
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