LAKE STEVENS — Steven Specht hasn’t lost faith in people.
When someone recently smashed Specht’s van outside his house, the disabled man, a former San Francisco paramedic, came one step closer to despair.
Specht, 55, was at home about 9 a.m. on May 14 when he heard a loud crash outside. There is a school near the small neighborhood south of Frontier Village, and he was afraid a child may have been hurt.
Specht hurried outside and saw that his Dodge Caravan had moved back about 15 feet. The van had been pushed into a parked Ford belonging to his mother-in-law, who was visiting that morning. The driver fled. There were no skid marks, no witnesses. But a Buick grill ornament lay among the broken parts.
Specht took it with a sense of humor.
“Sure, accidents happen, but whatever happened to good manners?” he asked. “And just to leave, how irresponsible.”
Specht and his wife are both disabled and on Medicare. He can’t work and his wife is only able to work part-time. They have back problems, and the roomy, cushy seats in the Dodge Caravan are easy on their spines.
“It made driving tolerable. It was like sitting in one of those armchairs,” Specht said.
For the next few weeks, Specht will be able to borrow his mother-in-law’s Ford Taurus for trips to the grocery store and other daily business, he said. He doesn’t have a plan yet for what’s next. For now, the wrecked van is awaiting its fate in the couple’s yard, covered with a tarp. “It will be a while before we save up enough to get parts,” Specht said.
Harboring hard feelings doesn’t make it easier, Specht said. The bad economy may be forcing some people to make bad decisions, driving people apart. Still, Specht hasn’t lost faith. “It’d be nice if they did the right thing and came forth. Through their selfishness, they really put us in a hard spot.”
Katya Yefimova: 425-339-3452, kyefimova@heraldnet.com.
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