Someone stole a 14-year-old boy’s custom-made, $40,000 motorized wheelchair from in front of his Maryland home, and it was the second time it’s happened.
The wheelchair is too heavy to take inside, so the family leaves it covered in front of their Silver Spring home. When the boy’s mother exited the home Wednesday morning, the wheelchair wasn’t there.
“Went to the garage in the back, there’s nothing, and went on the other side, nothing as well,” Brenda Romero said. “And I told my mom, I was so shocked, I was like, ‘Mom, the wheelchair is gone!’”
“That person who stole it knew what it was under that cover, because they took even the cover. It was gone,” she said. “They took the whole thing.”
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Her son, Joshua, is an eighth grader. Because the chair is the only way for him to get around, he has missed school this week.
“It’s really important because that‘s the only mobility I have to move around in school, outside of school, and without that, I can’t, can’t, like, do stuff because I can’t be independent,” he said.
“I was so sad,” Romero said. “I can’t believe that that person did that to my son.”
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She put photos of the wheelchair on social media in hopes someone might spot it. It was designed with Joshua’s favorite color, blue, and has his name on it.
The family does not have the money to buy a new one.
“The wheelchair is very expensive, and it’s brand new,” Romero said.
Joshua was able to get a loaner chair Friday. It’s not motorized but it will give him some of the independence he needs.
Montgomery County police assigned a detective to the case.
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