Teen's wheelchair is returned after theft from Metrodome

The electric wheelchair -- stolen as Sam Dougherty watched a game at the Metrodome -- was found in north Minneapolis.

By TIM HARLOW, Star Tribune

Last update: August 1, 2008 - 11:43 PM

The case of a teenager's missing wheelchair has a happy ending.

Two days after somebody rode off with Sam Dougherty's electric wheelchair as he watched a Twins game at the Metrodome, police found the missing chair and returned it to the 17-year-old.

Dougherty has a muscular disease and needs the chair to get around.

On Tuesday, Dougherty had parked his wheelchair, valued at more than $15,000, in the stadium concourse.

When he went to leave the game, the wheelchair was gone.

The surveillance video showed a man on a chair similar to Dougherty's leave the Metrodome in the seventh inning.

The video also shows the man struggling to get out of the building, until a Metrodome employee helps him.

Police found the chair Thursday night in north Minneapolis. No one has been arrested.

Recent Local + Metro stories

Man charged in UI vandalism pleads not guilty - August 1, 2008

Man charged in UI vandalism pleads not guilty - A Minnesota activist arrested in the 2004 animal rights vandalism at the University of Iowa has pleaded not guilty in federal court. More