Citronelle family asks for help finding missing veteran’s wheelchair

CITRONELLE, Ala. — A Citronelle family is asking for the public’s help finding an electric wheelchair belonging to an 85-year-old Air Force veteran. Thomas Powell uses the wheelchair to get around his home, and the family says it slipped off the back of their van during a trip through town after his wife forgot to strap it down. The wheelchair has not turned up despite the family’s own searching, and they believe it fell off somewhere near South Street and Highway 45 in Citronelle.

According to the family, the wheelchair had a black rain cover on it with bungee cords attached when it was lost, details that could help anyone who spots it identify it. The chair is not a spare or a backup; it is the piece of equipment Powell depends on to move around his house and manage daily life. For an 85-year-old veteran living with limited mobility, the difference between having the chair and waiting for a replacement is the difference between independence and confinement to one part of the home.

A search along Highway 45

The family believes the wheelchair fell from the back of their van somewhere near the intersection area of South Street and Highway 45, a stretch that runs through the heart of Citronelle. Highway 45 is the main north-south route through north Mobile County, linking Citronelle with Mount Vernon to the south and the Mississippi state line to the north, and it carries a steady mix of local traffic, logging trucks and commuters. South Street feeds into the residential and commercial core of the city, which means the area where the chair was lost sees regular foot and vehicle traffic.

The family has searched along the route but cannot find the wheelchair. That is not unusual in cases like this. A power wheelchair that tumbles off a vehicle can come to rest in a ditch, under brush or in tall grass several yards from the road, and it can go unnoticed by passing drivers even on a well-traveled highway. It is also possible that someone stopped and picked it up, either intending to help and not knowing how to find the owner, or with less generous motives.

That uncertainty is why the family is casting a wide net. They have been in touch with Citronelle Police, and they are asking anyone who may have seen the wheelchair on or near the roadway — or who may have picked it up — to call police at 251-866-5527 so it can be returned to Powell. A chair with a black rain cover and bungee cords attached is distinctive enough that someone who saw one along Highway 45 or South Street would likely remember it.

Why a wheelchair is never “just equipment”

Power wheelchairs and mobility scooters occupy a strange space in everyday life: they are expensive, essential pieces of medical equipment, yet they are also among the most commonly lost and stolen items for people who depend on them. Unlike a car, a wheelchair that is left on a curb looks like it might be abandoned. Passersby who find one often have no idea whether it belongs to someone nearby or how to return it, and some assume someone else will handle it.

For the person who uses it, though, the loss is immediate and total. An electric wheelchair is custom-configured to its owner’s body, strength and home layout, from the seat dimensions to the joystick controls to the batteries that determine how far it can travel on a charge. Replacing one is rarely a same-day errand. Depending on insurance coverage, a replacement can involve physician documentation, prior authorization, fitting and delivery that stretch out over weeks, all while the owner waits at home without reliable mobility.

Veterans face particular challenges in that window. Many older veterans rely on equipment provided through the Department of Veterans Affairs, and the process of repairing or replacing a device runs through VA channels that can take time even in straightforward cases. Family members often become the logistics backbone of that effort, coordinating between VA offices, suppliers and repair technicians while trying to keep a parent or grandparent’s daily routine intact. Mobile’s VA medical center serves veterans across the central Gulf Coast, but appointments, paperwork and delivery schedules still take time.

Citronelle and the reach of a small-town plea

Citronelle, the northernmost city in Mobile County, is a close-knit community of a few thousand residents built on a history of timber and railroading. In a town that size, word of a lost wheelchair travels fast, and stories like Powell’s routinely spread across community social media pages where neighbors tag friends who live along Highway 45 or commute the route daily. Those shares matter: someone who drove the highway the evening the chair was lost and remembers seeing something on the shoulder may not recognize the significance until the family’s post crosses their feed.

The community’s response in cases like this often extends beyond tips. Neighbors offer to walk fence lines and ditches, riders on the Highway 45 corridor keep an eye on the shoulder, and local businesses let the family post a flyer. North Mobile County’s rural character means the search area includes private property as well as roadway, so anyone who believes they have spotted the chair is encouraged to call police rather than venture onto land uninvited.

Citronelle Police, for their part, handle calls like this regularly — found-property reports are among the most common matters small departments field. When a lost item turns up, officers can connect the finder with the owner, and when an item appears to have been taken rather than lost, the report gives detectives a place to start. Either way, the family’s plea runs through the department, and the phone number they have shared, 251-866-5527, reaches Citronelle Police directly.

There are practical lessons in the episode for any family that transports a wheelchair or scooter on a vehicle. Safety experts and equipment suppliers generally recommend a rated lift or carrier with straps designed for the chair’s weight, a check of straps every time the vehicle moves, and a quick walk-around after the first few miles of a trip. Bungee cords, like the ones on Powell’s chair, are useful for holding a cover in place, but they are not load-rated tie-downs, and a hard bump on a rural highway can shift a chair that looks secure at the driveway. Rain covers, meanwhile, keep water out of joysticks and battery compartments, but they also make a chair harder to see and identify after dark.

Alabama is home to a large veteran population, spread from the suburban corridors of Huntsville and Birmingham to small towns like Citronelle, and the state’s military ties run deep through installations and veteran service organizations across the Gulf Coast. Veterans service organizations at the local level often step in to help in situations exactly like this one, whether by spreading the word, helping a family navigate paperwork or finding loaner equipment while a replacement is arranged. For an 85-year-old Air Force veteran, that network of fellow veterans can be as important as any agency process.

Anyone who finds mobility equipment on or near a roadway should turn it in to local law enforcement rather than keep it or leave it where it lies. An unclaimed chair in a ditch helps no one; a chair in a police station’s property room can be matched with a report and returned within days. People who realize they may have picked up a chair without knowing who it belonged to face no penalty for doing the right thing — officers would much rather field a call from someone holding the equipment than from a family that has searched for a week.

The search also highlights how differently a lost item looks from inside the family that lost it. To a passerby, a wheelchair on a shoulder is scenery; to the Powell household it is the difference between Thomas Powell moving through his own kitchen and waiting on help to cross the room. Families who have been through similar losses describe checking the same stretch of road multiple times a day, calling salvage yards and secondhand dealers, and refreshing community pages hoping for a photo. Those efforts rarely cost the finder anything but a phone call, which is why police departments encourage people to trust their instincts when something they saw does not add up.

For now, the Powell family’s request is simple: keep an eye out between South Street and the Highway 45 corridor in Citronelle, and check any memory of a wheelchair with a black rain cover and bungee cords against the last several days of drives through town. Anyone with information is asked to call Citronelle Police at 251-866-5527 so the chair can be returned to the veteran who depends on it.