SANFORD — Less than 24 hours after someone stole a homeless man’s wheelchair – taken off the porch of a good Samaritan in Sanford who offered him a hot meal and a place to shower – community members on Friday were donating two wheelchairs, clothes, toiletries and some food to help him out.

“He went to bed last night having lost everything he had, and he woke up this morning with more than he ever imagined,” said Miranda Gilman, who organized an online campaign to help the mystery man, who showed up in Sanford a few weeks ago and spent his days mostly sitting in a beat-up old red wheelchair with worn, flat tires outside the Family Dollar story in the Midtown Mall in downtown Sanford.

That they don’t know anything about him other than his first name – Shane – and that he came from Texas doesn’t matter.

“It’s none of my business,” said Sarah Saucier, 32, who invited Shane into her home, and wound up putting him up in her living room overnight Thursday after his chair was stolen off her porch not even a block from the police station. “I don’t know his story, to tell you the truth. I let him tell me what he wants to tell me.”

Some store employees and community members, Saucier among them, befriended him enough in recent weeks to buy him a cup of coffee or give him change or a blanket occasionally, but he never shared his personal story with anyone, they said.

After Gilman shared the story of the wheelchair theft on the city’s Facebook page, people started volunteering to help.

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Hours later, Saucier, who lives with her husband and five children, and Gilman, who delivered her first child three weeks ago, didn’t think anything of taking the time Friday afternoon to wait in the parking lot outside Family Dollar in the Midtown Mall for folks to drop off donations.

The first ones there were Elizabeth and Jeff Thibeault, who dropped off a hand wheelchair that Elizabeth had used after heart surgery a few years ago but didn’t need anymore.

“I feel so bad for him,” she said, but was cheered by the response from the community. “We’ve got a lot of nice people in this town. We all come together in this town. I don’t care who it is, we want to help.”

A few minutes later, Gilman talked to a nurse who dropped off some food and recommended Shane get some compression socks. Across the lot, Saucier thanked Anita Parker, who was dropping off some hand-knit mittens and socks.

“It’s always nice to help someone,” said Parker, 53, of West Newfield. “I worry about him. Winter’s coming and it’s getting cold,” she added, tearing up.

Gilman said Shane’s wheelchair was on the Sauciers’ porch when she and her fiance and 3-week-old son arrived for dinner, but it was gone a few hours later when Saucier went out to walk the dog.

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“I walked out and I’m like: ‘No. No way,'” Saucier said. “They took it right off my front porch, right next to my daughter’s stroller.” A few weeks back, her stepson’s Spiderman bike was stolen off the porch, too.

She said she’s pretty sure some neighborhood kids took the wheelchair on a lark, and dumped it in one of the town ponds. Her husband went to one neighbor’s house Thursday night and was told no one there had taken it, but the next morning Shane’s backpack, which had been hanging off the wheelchair when it was stolen, was sitting right in the middle of the sidewalk – with everything in it.

“I guarantee you it’s in the pond,” Saucier said of the wheelchair.

In addition to the Thibeaults’ wheelchair, another donor arranged to bring a battery-powered wheelchair to Saucier’s house Friday night. Ben Franklin, a painter and sandblaster at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, dropped off a charger for it.

“It’s kind of a pay-it-forward-type deal,” said Franklin. “If you can just help one person a week, you’re doing well.”

Saucier said she was glad to be able to help Shane, who was able to get cleaned up and soak his very swollen feet and ankles at her house.

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Both Gilman and Saucier said they’d had their own troubles in the past and understood that Shane may have his reasons – real or imagined – for not wanting to share too much information about what brought him to Maine and how he found himself living on the streets.

“He’s homeless for a reason. I was homeless at one point and someone in Maine helped me out,” said Gilman, who is originally from Exeter.

“I’ve been in bad situations and if not for help from other people, I wouldn’t be where I am today.”

Her fiance, who works at Hannaford, agreed. He’s stayed at the local shelter in the past when he had to, he said.

“I can understand what it feels like to feel like nobody cares,” Gilman said. “So instead of letting him think no one cares, well, I don’t even know the man, but I do know he’s in a bad situation and nobody deserves that.”

Several people who were donating goods said they’ve seen more homeless people in Sanford recently, including some panhandlers, which is new.

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City officials say Shane hasn’t applied for any help from the city’s General Assistance department.

Police have done welfare checks on him in recent weeks, asking how he’s doing and telling him how and where to get help, Sanford Police Deputy Chief Timothy Strout said Friday afternoon. Other than that, the police haven’t had any contact with him. They did not receive a report of a stolen wheelchair, he said.

By late Friday, Gilman’s post on the city’s Facebook page had more than 200 comments.

She said the whole experience has been surprising.

“It’s a sad thing that happened, but it’s a beautiful thing that we’ve been able to come together,” Gilman said, bouncing lightly with her infant asleep in her arms.

“These people have really helped restore my faith in this community,” she said.


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