Disabled Ricky Gilmore Abandoned On Desert Road, Forced To Drag Himself Four Miles

Abandoned Disabled Man Dragged Himself Through Desert For Three Days

A disabled man dragged himself four miles down a road over three days before someone stopped to help him after being abandoned without his wheelchair in a US desert.

Two cars simply beeped their horns and drove on past Ricky Gilmore, forcing him to continue his battle against the cold desert nights and blistering hot days in the New Mexico desert with neither food or water.

He was finally rescued on the third day and is now being treated for a blood infection and acute kidney failure. His wrist was sprained, his ripped trousers soaked in blood and dust and he had dangerously low body temperature when he was found.

Ricky Gilmore holds his ripped jeans up after dragging himself four miles across the desert

Gilmore told the Farmington Times the worst part of it was not his battle against the elements but coming to terms with his inhumane treatment.

"I mean, I'm in a wheelchair. They should have that respect for people who have a disability. I was just being nice," he said.

"The disrespect, you know, for people with disabilities. I didn't do nothing to them."

The 49-year-old was thrown out of his wheelchair on the desert road after inviting a couple he had met hitchhiking back to his house for a steak supper, reported the Associated Press. He has hitchhiked for 19 years, since losing the use of his legs in a car accident.

After dinner, Gilmore went for a drive with the couple to buy alcohol. The three then embarked on a joyride, picking up another man and dropping his wheelchair at home. However after an argument, the man yanked him out of the truck.

"I was just trying to plead with him not to pull me out but he had those wild, devilish eyes," he told the Farmington Times.

"I did not want to fight back...if I did fight back all hell would come loose...I know gangsters like that, they just start that clubbing away."

Abandoned on the side of the road, 10 miles from home, Gilmore fought a battle for survival. He curled up into a ball at night to keep warm.

'It was dark and I was shivering and the wind was blowing so I just crawled to a bush and dug in right there. It was cold that night,' he told the Associated Press.

"It was torture" he told the Farmington Times.

Gilmore described the couple who abandoned him as Native American and driving a white pick-up truck. The man was in his 20s with a tattoo on his neck and the woman "heavyset" and in her mid-forties.

Close

What's Hot