Child With Cerebral Palsy Wants Stolen Wheelchair Returned
Posted: Nov 12, 2013 1:36 PM CDT | Updated: Nov 5, 2014 12:35 PM CDT
Cleveland (WJW) -- A nine-year-old Cleveland boy with cerebral palsy and scoliosis is making a plea for the return of his stolen custom wheelchair.
\"Can you please return my wheelchair?\" pleaded Stephen Gibson, a fourth-grader, who must wear a body cast under his clothes and can hardly walk because of his ailments.
Now he cannot leave his MLK Drive home, even to go to school, because someone stole his wheelchair over the weekend.
\"It's a custom-made wheelchair for him,\" his mother, Barbara Gibson, said.
The family was getting ready to leave for church Sunday morning when they realized someone had broken into their locked garage and found the wheelchair was missing from inside their van, along with all of the food in the stocked refrigerator.
\"Sad,\" Stephen said.
The Gibsons believe the thief, or thieves, broke in through that window and emptied out the refrigerator.
Barbara Gibson believes the thief may have used Stephen's wheelchair as a make-shift cart to transport the stolen food.
Now Stephen is unable to transport himself, except for a few steps around the house.
\"So they won't even take him on the [school] bus without the wheelchair. It's a safety issue,\" Barbara Gibson said.
The wheelchair should stand out because it is small and the side bars are a bright green.
\"We are just hoping whoever the person that took the wheelchair will have a heart. I mean, call the station or the police, or leave it somewhere and maybe someone will spot it and we will get it back,\" Barbara Gibson said.