Theft Sets the Wheels of Charity Into Motion : Aid: After a disabled woman’s wheelchair is stolen, police and some benefactors turn the story into a happy ending.

The thief who stole a homeless woman’s wheelchair Saturday does not know it, but the repercussions from that criminal act spanned two days, involved dozens of mostly anonymous benefactors and reached what is presumed to be a happy ending.

Billie Metcalf, 27, was sleeping on a bus bench at Hollywood Boulevard and Gower Street when she was awakened by another woman, possibly a homeless adversary, according to police. “You’re a bum,” the thief reportedly said, walking away with Metcalf’s wheelchair. Metcalf is disabled. The wheelchair was her transportation.

Hollywood Division police officers took a report on the incident. At her request, officers left Metcalf at a church at Gower and Carlos streets. Metcalf said she came to Los Angeles about a month ago from Tennessee and has been living on the streets since.

“She is very incisive and sharp about a lot of things,” Sgt. Wolfgang Hundertmark told reporters.

Hundertmark began looking for a replacement wheelchair for Metcalf. He could not find one Saturday but urged fellow officers to keep trying. Keith Moreland, a veteran patrolman, finally succeeded.

“The convalescent hospitals usually have one or two tucked away in the basement because a tenant will die and usually everyone who shows up there has one,” Moreland said. After visiting five convalescent hospitals, Moreland found one with a spare.

Then, he could not find Metcalf.

“I went looking for her where she was last left (the church),” Moreland said Sunday. “I’m trying to locate her now.”

News of the theft also reached the public Sunday and callers offered to donate wheelchairs.

Moreland finally learned where Metcalf had gone.

Colleagues told him that on Saturday night security officers at the church called police. The security officers said they could not let Metcalf stay because she could not get around.

Officers returned to the church, got Metcalf and took her back to the station.

While police were trying to find somewhere else to send Metcalf, staff members from a Compton home that cares for the disabled showed up looking for her. Unknown to police, church officials had called the home--with Metcalf’s consent. By the time officials from the home arrived at the church, other church officials had called the police and Metcalf was at the police station.

Representatives of the home--officers did not know its name--finally caught up to Metcalf at the police station and departed with her.

Police thanked the public for the offers of aid.

Moreland still has the wheelchair.

“We’ll keep the wheelchair on hand here until the next crisis arises,” Moreland said.