HOW can anyone stoop so low?

That’s the question posed by a Romsey woman left housebound after her self-propelled wheelchair was stolen from the Olive Tree pub in Latimer Street, while she was at the bar last Friday evening.

Elaine Tregenza, who is recovering from three operations to repair her left ankle and leg, which she fractured in a fall at her home in April, said: “I couldn’t believe it when this guy came up to me and said someone has stolen your wheelchair.

“A few people went outside to have a look for it, but they could not see it. I am housebound without that wheelchair. I’ve been given another one by the Red Cross, but I need someone to push it for me. How can anyone stoop so low?”

The stolen chair worth about £250 was on loan from the British Red Cross.

After the theft. Elaine was left to struggle on her crutches for three days until she was given a replacement wheelchair. but this one is not self-propelled.

“I run a postal business from home on the internet and I can’t get to the post office or postbox on my own without the self-propelled wheelchair,” said 48-year-old Elaine.

She was told that four young men were spotted what she described as “larking about” with a wheelchair in Waitrose’s car park and around the town’s streets after the theft.

Police have been sifting through CCTV images across the town in a bid to track down those behind the theft.

Anyone who knows anything about the theft, which happened at about 11pm on June 14, is asked to contact Romsey police on 101.