An East Bay woman sold a stolen van by a car dealer, a Fremont man looking for his late father's missing car and a san mateo dialysis patient facing eviction were just some of the stories 7 On Your Side's Michael Finney brought to you in 2007, and now we have an update.
We have good news to report about two of those viewers, but a third could still use a generous hand. Maybe you can help.
Back in September we brought you the story of Samir gupte. His father suffered a heart attack on a busy San Francisco street and died days later.
No one knew where his father had parked his car before having the heart attack and the family desperately wanted the car back.
"Just to have the car back, kind of one last thing that we know that was familiar to my dad, that he was in. It would be nice to get back," said Samir Gupta.
This was the only clue, a parking stub found in his father's pocket. Based on that evidence, 7 On Your Side received a list of 25 likely parking garages the car might be in. we called all of them.
One parking lot we contacted notified police it had the car and the car has now been returned to the family.
In May we told you about the Oakland mother who paid a dealership $2,000 dollars for a used van to transport her seven children.
The vehicle turned out to be stolen and the highway patrol confiscated it from the family just a couple of months after they bought it.
Sir Richards Auto Center, which is now shut down, only refunded half the money. But with the help of an attorney, the Bakers got their $2,000 dollars back.
And in June, we reported on the plight of Spencer Marques, a dialysis patient awaiting a kidney transplant and caught in government red tape.
He lived in a government subsidized apartment that belonged to his mother. When his mother died, the landlord wanted him out.
"To be out in the street now with all that happening would be detrimental big time, yeah," said Spencer Marques from San Mateo.
We called the Housing and Urban Development Department which opened an investigation. It found Marques failed to report his mother's death promptly and ruled on the side of the landlord, opening up the apartment for other needy tenants.
Marques was evicted in November and forced to live in his car and ended up with pneumonia
He is just out of intensive care at Mills Peninsula Hospital in Burlingame, where doctors performed a balloon angioplasty.
"My heart was -- the motor basically does not work for my body weight. It's worn out," said Marques.
With his deteriorating health, Marques knows it's unlikely he'll get the life saving kidney transplant he needs. He's just hoping he can spend whatever time he has left in an apartment that he can afford with his brother Bobby.
"My situation, would really appreciate it if I had a little help, because I've helped others in the past and I never wanted anything for myself," said Marques.
Spencer and his brother say they can afford about $550 dollars a month in rent.
Click hereto read the statement from HUD regarding the eviction of Spencer Marques.
