we had a childs walker and wheelchair stolen

[scottsod]

sadly i saw 2 days ago there was a story in the local paper i saw the online version that said a young boys with c/p had his walker and wheelchair stolen his mom put it out by her car and went back inside to get him and it was all gone

it said he couldnt go to school that day and some people from a support group were rasing funds to replace it all

so i turner to my wife and said hes my sons age and my son has cp
we just got a new walker few months back a diffrent style of the old one and we had the old one in my garage. so my wife took it over to the kids school and donated it so he could have one asap. they had a replacent ordered by a generous donation in the support group but since we gave him ours i figured
they could use that $ twoard the wheelchair.

today the paper said they heard from insurance and they will cover most of the replacement wheelchair cost!!

the kicker was they had a story on local tv last nite and when my wife saw it
she recognized the woman and child as someone we knew and were in early intervention when we lived in that town and our kids were like 2

with out even knowing we helped an old friend but we would have done it anyway!
there is no link for fund rasing but i will link the story below thanks scott
http://www.nj.com/bayonne/index.ssf/2009/03/community_rallies_around_bayon.html

 

[SueM in MN]

Thanks for sharing.
That is a sad story and it really makes you wonder who would take something like that. It's not like they would be useful to someone else.

It is nice to see an outpouring of help though.

We had a situation once with our DD's talking device. When she was on a school outing at an apartment building, the staff set the case it was in down and put DD on the bus. When they realized it was missing, they went back, but it was gone. They put out flyers in the area, asked people in neighboring apartments and in the apartment office, but no one admitted to having seen it. Then, all of a sudden, 2 weeks later, it just showed up. We assumed that someone took the case, thinking it was a computer. After 2 weeks, they apparently figured out it only talked, nothing more 'useful', so they turned it in.

 

[wdhinn89]

Was it on the curb by the car. Someone might have thought it was out in the garbage and took it. This happened when my BIL was putting some chairs in his car and ran inside for a minute. He caught the person in the act and they said they thought it was for the trash.

Hopefully this was the case and someone wasn't so cruel to steal it on purpose.

 

[KirstenB]

That's a shame. Scott, it's neat you were able to help out, without even knowing you guys had met the family before. Very cool.

 

[DisneyWheeler]

That's terrible. I can imagine it might be hard to replace a manual wheelchair if it gets stolen if the user also has a power chair because the insurance considers power chairs to be the primary use wheelchair.

Last year when Dan and I went to camp, I almost lost my manual wheelchair, and my power chair both because another camper in the cabin that all of the female campers in each one of the groups were staying in, had the same exact manual wheelchair that I did with the same frame color. But, hers didn't have the curved extension handle in the push handles like mine does. She also had the same seating system in her power chair as I did in mine, although she didn't have the headrest or trunk support straps like I do. Her counselor would always get mixed up with mistaking my wheelchairs for her camper's wheelchair.

Someone would tell her counselor each time, "That's Sammie's (my nickname) wheelchair" after she had put her camper in it. She'd then realize her mistake and switch her camper to her camper's own wheelchair. I would always have my name on my belongings, and my wheelchair trays. But, never on my wheelchairs. They were both easy for my counselor to recognize, even when there would be another wheelchair user in the group besides me.

This year when we go, both of my wheelchairs are going to have my name on them.

Samantha

 

[rjthkids]

Sadly, nothing surprises me any more.

My oldest daughter is blind, and uses a cane for independent mobility. When we moved to this state we had *three* canes stolen in a single month. Two of her canes said "NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND" in bold letters on the handle, plus her name and contact information. The other was a marshmallow tip red and white striped one.

We had one stolen out of the park, one stolen out of an indoor play area with all the inflatable bounce-type toys, and one stolen at the library of all places. I called each establishment for a month afterward to make sure no one ever returned them.

I can totally see a kid thinking it was a cool, fun "toy" stick to brandish around and play with. What I don't understand is how a parent could let a child walk out of one of these areas with a 36 inch aluminum long white cane and just let them keep it.

It's sad that now I get ultra-paranoid. Whenever we put it down somewhere I'm watching like a hawk and the instant I see someone so much as looking at it I pretty much tell them that it belongs to my daughter and please no touching. Makes me sad that I have to genuinely consider whether or not her cane is going to get snatched when we go out!