Wheelchair, Backpack, Debit Cards Recovered After They Were Stolen From Capitol Beach Home

LINCOLN–(KFOR June 6)–Two people are in jail, after they allegedly stole a 16-year-old’s wheelchair, which had a backpack that contained two debit cards, and later bought items with the cards before they were tracked down by the teen’s father.

Lincoln Police Captain Todd Kocian said that officers were called just before 1pm Sunday to the 2000 block of Surfside Drive in the Capitol Beach area, where the teen’s father reported that the manual wheelchair was stolen from the front yard, next to a vehicle before going inside. The father came back out to find the wheelchair was gone.

About an hour later, Captain Kocian says the teen and his father started receiving fraud alerts on their phone from several businesses along West “O” Street. The father drove around the area and saw a silver SUV next to an ATM in a parking lot that had the wheelchair in the backseat, before calling police.

LPD continued to get updates from the father on the SUV’s location and officers later tracked down 40-year-old Reynaldo Gonzalez, Jr. and 35-year-old Latisha Castillo at the Walgreen’s off of 13th and “O.” Both Gonzalez and Castillo were taken into custody and the wheelchair and other belongings were recovered and over $700 worth of fraudulent charges were made with one transaction on one of the debit cards.

Police also found a total of just under 15 grams of meth on both Gonzalez and Castillo. Gonzalez was arrested for theft by unlawful taking $5,000 or more, criminal possession of a financial transaction device and possession of a controlled substance.

Castillo was arrested for theft by unlawful taking $5,000 or more, possession of a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia.