Good heart, bad break

A Kelowna man is now out of hospital and on the mend after not one, but two disturbing incidents downtown last month.

Karol Gabanowicz says he was making a stop at a shop near the Queensway bus stop on the night of Oct. 5.

The Okanagan College social work student made the trip on his electronic scooter. While he was leaving the area, he ran into a group of teens who complimented him on his ride and asked if they could use it to show him some tricks.

"I love kids. I'm good with teens. But after 15 minutes of these kids playing with it, this 14-year-old kid gets shoved in the back by an adult. He ended up with a scraped up arm and (the adult) took off on my scooter," said Gabanowicz.

The incident left his faith in humanity shaken and missing a brand new e-scooter. Gabanowicz reported the incident to RCMP.

Gabanowicz resigned himself to the loss of his scooter so he went and bought another one.

Later that month on Oct. 19, Gabanowicz was riding his second new e-scooter past the Petro Canada gas station on Richter St. when he crashed, hurting himself badly, and sending his phone and other personal items flying.

"I ended up breaking my hip. So I was yelling a lot as I was laying on the ground."

Gabanowicz says two people he called "unhoused" came over and offered him some comfort.

"Then these other two guys came over and joined them. Under the guise of wanting to help me, they [took] off with my scooter," Gabanowicz says.

"I just said, 'guys, can you not expropriate me while I'm yelling for an ambulance on the ground here and wailing,' come on, my fellow man."

Gabanowicz says he's trying hard to turn the other cheek but he spent time in hospital having several screws inserted into his broken hip.

"I'm not even mad at the guy. It's got to be a pretty sad state of affairs in one's own life when they're willing to trade their dignity for a piece of tech. Because whatever your circumstances, only you decide whether your dignity remains intact."

Gabanowicz says he knows how unlikely it is for his scooter to be recovered but he wants people in the community to be aware.

Gabanowicz admits he's had a run of bad luck and his faith in humanity has been shaken but he still plans to continue his studies and hopes to find a job as a social worker.

"I'm a social worker in training. I'm not here to rant about bad people downtown," he said, noting he was initially helped by two unhoused people after his crash.

"They stayed with me. They called an ambulance, went and got me a bottle of water. It was like the human condition writ small."

"The other two unhoused guys took that opportunity to expropriate [my things]," says Gabanowicz.

Either way, Gabanowicz is out two scooters with a retail value of approximately $2,000.