Family pleads with Lafayette car thieves to return vehicle for disabled son
A Krotz Springs family is speaking out after their car was stolen at a Lafayette thrift store.
KROTZ SPRINGS, La. (KLFY) – A Krotz Springs family is speaking out after their car was stolen at a Lafayette thrift store.
Lafayette Police say it's one of 277 stolen vehicle reports they have received since January 1, 2022. The family, who has a disabled son, says they rely on that vehicle to bring him to and from his doctors appointments every week. "We weren't there but a couple minutes, and the owner ran in and said, 'Someone just left in y'all's car. Call 911,'" Dorian Laborde said.
Surveillance video caught the car theft on camera. When two men jumped in her car while it was parked at a thrift store in Lafayette and drove away on Wednesday, Laborde says all she could do was panic. "You don't think it ever happens to you. You think it happens to everyone but you, but it happened to us," she added.
Laborde filed a report with Lafayette Police, though her vehicle has not yet been found. She says it's frustrating, as her family depends on that car to bring her disabled son to his doctors appointments every week.
She and her husband are pleading with the two car thieves to do the right thing. "This is my son. We need this car for him. My son has cerebral palsy, and we depend on this car for everything. Just drop the car off anywhere and walk away. Walk away. You don't even have to go to jail. Just drop it anywhere and walk away," Laborde said.
"I'm a grown man. If I got to use my feet God gave me, I'm good with that. It's for my family. That's what means the most to them, that vehicle. That's why, like my wife said, we don't care who you are, where you are, please drop that car off to my family please. I don't want to know who you are. I don't want you to go to jail. Just please have a heart and return this car to my family, please," Dorian's husband, Floyd Laborde, added.
Their son, Jacob, says he's also feeling his parents' pain. "Please bring the car back because we need it a lot. It hurt us a lot to know that," Jacob said.
The car is a gray 2010 Ford Fusion. The family says it has a blue butterfly sticker on the right passenger side window and stickers of a stick family on the back window.
You're encouraged to call Lafayette Police if you have any information.