The van stolen in Trani from the “Oltre Sport” association was found in the Puro district on the road that connects Trani to Andria. The vehicle is significantly damaged in the ignition lock. To find him the carabinieri thanks to the report of a citizen.
“The wheelchairs and all the sports equipment is present we cannot understand if it is damaged or not”, wrote the Paralympic athlete Donato Grande. The 5 Paralympic athletes were preparing to leave for Jesolo (Ve), where the Italian Powerchair Sport Federation has organized an international tournament from 13 to 16 May next.
The van was stolen in the night between 10 and 11 May in Trani, near the church of the Santi Angeli Custodi.
“We managed to buy it after years of sacrifices – he said Anita Pallara, national president of Sma Families and one of the athletes called up for the Jesolo tournament – and we thought we had parked it in the safest place imaginable, the churchyard “. Someone, however, had taken it away, perhaps aware of the fact that in that van – a Fiat Ducato – there were also the equipment for Powerchair football, important wheelchairs worth a few thousand euros, and then “balls and bulkheads” .
Sanremo 2021, on the Ariston stage the Apulian wheelchair soccer champion plays with Ibrahimovic
Anna Puricella
The appeal to return it traveled on social media: “In the van there are our dreams and sacrifices”, we read. And the athletes, therefore, had turned to those who committed the theft: “Please bring it back to where you got it, even anonymously”. Because it is not just a question of civility, but also of pride.
Of the seven sportsmen who make up the Italian Powerchair football team that will be in Jesolo from 13 to 16 May, five are from Puglia. In addition to Anita Pallara there are I.laria Mesaroli, Vincenzo Apruzzese, Pasquale Troccoli e Donato Grande, the boy who brought the demands and strength of all people affected by SMA to the stage of the Sanremo Festival. “Do not take away this primacy of the Apulians – concludes Pallara – it would really be a fool not to be able to go to Jesolo”.
Among the hundreds of indignant comments there was also that of Checco Zalone, who shared the article by Republic and written: “Message to the thieves of the van of my friends Sma: there is hope for everyone, even for you”.
“There is only one way to repair the seriousness of the theft of the powerchair football wheelchairs: return them immediately to the disabled girls and boys who, thanks to them, practice sports wearing the colors of the national team”, added the president and vice president of the Region, Michele Emiliano e Raffaele Piemontese.
“Those who have become the protagonists of such a cowardly gesture still have the possibility of remedying by immediately returning the stolen goods, and healing this material and immaterial wound. The Region will, as always, be at the side of associations to find – said the leaders of the Region – concrete solutions that do not jeopardize the sporting activity of our young people. Nobody can break the bond of solidarity thanks to which we have invested so much so that sport in Puglia is truly for everyone. Return those wheelchairs, the symbol of the most beautiful Puglia “, the invitation of Emiliano and Piemontese.
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