MONTREAL - A Verdun family is breathing a sigh of relief after learning their precious van has been found.
Philip Paraskevopoulos has cerebral palsy, and after years of relying on adapted transit his family managed to acquire a van that had been modified to handle a wheelchair.
The 1999 Dodge Caravan gave the family freedom to drive to La Ronde, and to avoid navigating stairs in the metro system.
That came to an abrupt end last Saturday when their van was stolen, and became worse when their insurance company deemed the vehicle too old to replace.
However plans to hold fundraisers to acquire a new vehicle were suddenly scrapped when the Paraskevopoulos family learned their van has been located.
Late Thursday they were told the van was sitting in a scrapyard on the South Shore.
Michael Zinman, the son of the scrapyard's owner, told CTV Montreal he bought the van from a man for $400 on Monday.
When he heard about the stolen van a few days later he realized it may have been the same one.
"I said, 'hey, it's a 1999 Caravan and it's white,' and then I started to put two and two together and it was at that point that I said to my dad, 'we better not scrap this van,'" Zinman said.
The van is now in possession of police and the family hopes to reclaim it this coming weekend.
