Man arrested for stealing disabled man's wheelchair

Jon Peak, 29, of the 2400 block of Tiffin Ave., was charged with three counts of theft and one count each of burglary, attempted theft, forgery and complicity to both theft and burglary. On April 4, Peak asked a disabled Parkview Boulevard resident if he could borrow his motorized wheelchair, according to a Sandusky police report.Peak explained he had to travel across town, but didn't want to walk. The chair's owner, Leonard Mitchell, 59, agreed, but asked that Peak return it by the end of the night, the report said. Peak scooted away, but returned to Mitchell's house on foot a little while later. He asked the man for the chair's charger, claiming the battery died near Scott Street, the report said.In reality however, Peak had already found a buyer for the stolen chair, and he needed the charger to complete the deal, Sandusky police Detective Gary Wichman said.Mitchell never heard from Peak again, and reported the theft the next day, the report said.Detectives were able to pin down the chair's whereabouts in the following days. "He sold it to someone in town that we were familiar with," Wichman said.Peak was also implicated in a March 23 theft on East Adams Street, according to another Sandusky police report. A resident reported his 60-inch plasma television and five sets of keys stolen from his house sometime the night before.Detectives lifted fingerprints from a glass window pane where the burglar made entry and eventually tied the theft back to Peak, the report said.In a January 2013 Erie County grand jury session, Peak was indicted on five counts of felonious theft, three counts of forgery and one count of attempted theft, after he allegedly stole checks from an elderly couple, according to court documents.Peak was taken to the Erie County jail Monday, where he remains on $100,000 bond.