Sacramento Police Officer Helps Disabled Woman Stranded In Parking Lot

SACRAMENTO (CBS) - A Sacramento police officer went above and beyond the call of duty, helping a disabled woman get home in the middle of the night.

It was past midnight and Lynette Atchley was alone when the cab she called didn't show and her electric wheelchair ran out of batteries.

It's a good thing the officer came along because she starting to think she'd have to spend the night in a McDonald's parking lot in a tank top and wrapped up in a blanket.

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Atchley arrived in Sacramento on Amtrak, expecting to take a taxi home.

"The taxi flaked out…never came. We called them and they said well we don't have anything at the moment," said Atchley.

With no taxi, her power chair had full batteries, so off she went, trying to drive several miles home. But before long, her batteries were running out.

"I drove so long and so far it went to the last blinking red light, and I was going to be stuck at three in the morning. There was nothing open there was nowhere to go," she said.

It was by sheer chance she happened to see Sacramento police officer Richard Kawasaki out on patrol.

"She was cold, she needed medication and she'd been on the train all day," said Kawasaki.

He had dispatchers call around, but no cabs were around with wheelchair lifts. Then he came up with a plan to use one of the department's trucks with a hydraulic lift.

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"Another officer went and found the truck, brought it down and we were able to get the 450-pound wheelchair into the truck and got Lynnette into a vehicle and got her home," he said.

Atchley got home safe and sound that night, thanks in no small part to Officer Kawasaki.

"If it wasn't for him, I would've been in chair in the McDonald's parking lot freezing to death. And it was cold that night," she said.

"Sometimes it's the littlest thing, and you don't realize until after the fact how much it helped that person or how much it may have helped them," said Kawasaki.

"And good things will come back to you for helping somebody," said Atchley.

Kawasaki says he wasn't sure how he'd help Atchley, but he's glad he found a way.