LAUDERDALE LAKES, FLA. (WSVN) - A good Samaritan has come forward with a generous gift for a South Florida woman who, authorities said, lost her disabled dog after a man stole her station wagon and left her pet inside the hot vehicle.
7News cameras captured Wanda Ferrari breaking down in tears at Westway Towing in Lauderdale Lakes after being given back her dog’s pink wheelchair, Friday afternoon.
“Oh, my little girl,” said Ferrari as she was consoled by a friend.
Ferrari had left Zorra inside her gray Volvo station wagon with the air conditioning running while she went into a Dollar Tree store in Oakland Park, Oct. 3.
Broward Sheriff’s Office deputies said Jephthe Jeanfrancois stole the station wagon and later abandoned it with Zorra trapped inside.
The husky mix’s body was found in the Volvo’s back seat.
Ferrari said she could not use that car again.
“She was with me with my first bout of breast cancer, and I was hoping she’d be there for the second,” she said. “She’s my rock. She’s my heart.”
But what Ferrari did not know was that her story had moved Brett Holcombe, the president of Westway Towing, where the victim’s Volvo was stored.
“When I saw what was going on, what Wanda was going through, we knew we had to step forward and do something for her,” he said.
The staff at Westway Towing cleaned and restored Zorra’s wheelchair, and Holcombe gave Ferrari a Volkswagen Jetta.
“It’s all about making a stand and doing what’s right for the community,” said Darren Wells with Westway Towing.
For Ferrari, it means one less thing to worry about as she fights cancer and grieves her loss.
“Thank you, everybody,” she said as she sat behind the wheel of her new car.
Ferrari said Zorra’s passing will leave a void in her life.
“She was a fighter, and she was a fighter when I didn’t want to be, sometimes, when I first went through the first breast cancer,” she said. “If it wasn’t for her, I may not have made it.”
Jeanfrancois remains at the Broward County Jail without bond. He faces a long list of charges.
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